Loading summary

Transcript65 lines

[00:00]
Josh Pate
This is an iHeart podcast.
[00:02]
Jesse
Guaranteed Human Amazon Health AI presents painful thoughts.
[00:09]
Josh Pate
I. I can't stop scratching my downtown. Mm, yeah, but I'm not itching to go downtown and tell a receptionist I'm here to talk about my downtown. Some things you'd rather type than say out loud.
[00:24]
Jesse
There's no question too embarrassing for Amazon Health AI.
[00:28]
Brandon Walker
Chat your symptoms and get virtual care. 24. 7 Healthcare just got less painful.
[00:34]
Jesse
Do you want to find a stress free way to buy your next car? Start at CarMax and shop your way. If you want to browse with confidence, get pre qualified online with no impact on your credit score, and shop cars within your budget. From luxury cars to family rides, CarMax has options for almost every price range, including more than 25,000 cars priced under $25,000.
[00:58]
Josh Pate
So.
[00:59]
Jesse
So, hey, want to get started? Just head to CarMax.com for details and get pre qualified today. Want to drive CarMax? Optimal fibers in the house.
[01:10]
Josh Pate
Y' all know the number 877-393-4448 Optimum Fibers so fast, so fine Got another provider leaving behind.
[01:21]
Jesse
Come on Everybody, let's get online.
[01:23]
Josh Pate
30amonth gonna blow your mind 5o years
[01:26]
Brandon Walker
don't hesitate lock it in now before
[01:29]
Josh Pate
it's too 739-34448 Optimum.com for details. Wait, I came in for two things.
[01:40]
Jesse
How is this $47?
[01:42]
Josh Pate
All right, we're gonna need a plan here. Just start simple with bank of America Advantage Safe Balance Banking. No overdraft item fees, no monthly maintenance fee if you're under 25. Plus as a new checking customer, you can earn $100 when you open an account and make qualifying zelle or debit transactions.
[01:57]
Jesse
Oh, that's actually really simple.
[01:59]
Josh Pate
Safe Balance Banking. One less thing to figure out. Learn more@bofa.com earn 100 terms and conditions apply. Bank of America and a member fdic.
[02:22]
Jesse
You know what I did yesterday, Jesse? In the span of 12 hours, in the span of eight hours, I appeared publicly with Mack Brown, college football legend, college football hall of Famer, a saint of an individual, former national champion. And I appeared with Brandon Walker. The extremes of the human condition, never more pronounced than my life. What I experienced yesterday. And I'm going to talk about the latter of which a lot later in the show. We're jam packed. We're high atop a glowing downtown Nashville, Tennessee. Beautiful sunset underway outside. And look, the reason I got to push all that stuff to later in the show is it's college football playoff prediction time. It's conference championship Prediction time. Last year I was looking at the calendar. We waited too long. Frankly. I think I got influenced by some things that I heard in August and that doesn't matter. And so I want to get it out of the way early. And we're going to do it tonight. We're going to do it to lead the show off. Also, the rankings came out today from the coaches. And the coaches are telling you some things without telling you some things well, or either their sids who fill the ballot out in their place are telling you some things. There is one of the more egregious teams placed in the top 25 that I ever remember in the modern era. And we all know how far that goes back. I've got a ton of fall camp stuff. Not like practice intel yet. Cause most camps are just opening up or haven't opened up yet. But I got my eye on a lot of things. We're finally about to put pads on and you know, start figuring out some of this depth chart stuff. All that plus I will give my own personal recount of my appearance last night, my debut appearance, my hosting duties, basically on the maiden voyage of the Brandon Walker College Football Show. The second edition, the first one failed. And so this is the second edition of the Brandon Walker College Football Show. They're watching us in Lakeland, Florida. They're watching us in Danville, California. St. Paul, Minnesota. Porter, Texas. Look, we're way over halfway to a million subscribers. Now. I don't know what's going to happen the day we get there, but we got a little ways to go. And I just want to crank up the community service early. We do a lot of community service on our end. The only service we ask for in return for this free college football show, which we do multiple times per week, is please subscribe to the channel and then humbly but forcefully steal the phone of five of your friends and family and close relatives and have them do the same thing with that. We are off. This is a really important show because it's time to pick some winners. It's time to make some predictions. It's time to nail myself down. And it's August, August 4th. And you know what that means, Jesse? I don't like predictions, frankly, because they set me up for failure. Think D.J. lagway, number one quarterback in SEC circa 2025. This never works out well for me. I went 05, maybe 06 picking against Indiana last year. So take this with an entire factory of salt. And so what I'm thinking about doing is, you know, a Little strategy called hedging. It is early August, and I am going to make predictions tonight. And I'm not writing them in pencil. I'm writing them in dark pencil. But still erasable, because if I hear some stuff in fall camp, I want to be able to right before the season starts. So I'm going to give you my conference winners, I'm going to give you my playoff predictions. I'm going to give you my national champion right here in front of God and Bradley and everyone. But I just want to leave myself a small crack in the exit door over here. With that in mind, let's talk conferences. First, and in no particular order, the ACC won the draft. And so the ACC is going to go first tonight. Look, there's no reason to break these games down because number one, they may not happen. But number two, even if they do, they're like four months, five months away. But congratulations to Mario Cristobal in Miami. They're going to finally do something that many said would happen a lot, but in actuality has never happened, and that is Miami winning the ACC. Now, to quickly remind you the odds over FanDuel. Right now, Miami is the overwhelming favorite to win the league. What's very interesting is who's. Who's theoretically number two in this conference. Well, the answer is two teams, SMU and Louisville, had the exact same odds to win the acc. Right now I slightly, ever so slightly lean SMU to face Miami in the ACC title game. Which probably means. Jesse, probably not. Definitely means that smu, who knows, went on the road and beat Louisville. They do play early in the season. While the rest of the free world has their eyes focused on Oxford, Mississippi. You know, SMU and Louisville play that week, too, I think on a Saturday, Jesse. We want to check that. Anyway. Give me Miami versus SMU in the ACC championship game and give me Miami over SMU. More on what that means for Miami and SMU in just a second. Next up, the Big 12, the Monster Energy, Big 12 drafted second, and I think we're going to have a rematch from what we had last year, at least in terms of the matchup itself. Texas Tech, even without Brendan Sorsby, is still the pretty overwhelming favorite to win this league. Then it's a little drop off in Brigham Young. Then it's a little drop off further in Utah. And there was a rumor that went around, not just the Big 12, but the whole country last year that I was anti Brigham Young. Some people made harsher accusations than that. Some people went down roads that we're not comfortable going down on this show on this campus, at this university. Anyway, I heard all of it and I also watched American Primeval, which is, it's a tough watch, but I think a necessary watch because it put the fear of God in me, at least when it comes to Brigham Young. The dude ran a different way back then. And so I think maybe I want to lean Brigham Young slightly right now to win this league over Texas Tech. Joy Maguire enjoys this. He'll enjoy it more than any Brigham Young fan enjoys this. So I'm doing favors for everyone here. But I think that when you go through what they went through last year, which is they lost to one team twice. I was on hand the first time when they played in Lubbock and then they got another shot against them and Texas Tech was just a better team. And then you go home to pro for the entire off season and you just think about it and you got all your players back. And then here comes Jesse's private jet from Penn State in and they're like, Kalani Sitaki, we want to hire you. And he says no. And Jesse has to go home empty handed only to cash in with Matt Campbell. So all's well that ends well there. And it's just, you got another shot. That group of guys has another shot. I like Brigham Young and so I'm going to slightly lean them right now to win the Big 12. Next up, the Southeastern Conference still going to field 16 teams this year and they're going to give it the good old college try. Right now, the odds in this league, Georgia the favorite, Texas behind them. I actually didn't know Alabama had moved up to third. Jesse, is that new? Is it? Was that odds movement? Okay, well, it's Bama third, LSU fourth. LSU and Ole Miss are tied. Lsu, Ole Miss and OU tied for fourth. Okay, again, I'm going to talk about this more later when we talk about the rankings in the show, but how do I think this conference is going to work itself out? Well, in early August, before we really got an intel anywhere, why overthink the room? This is Georgia's league. This has been Georgia's league. And even though Texas has had multiple shots at him, it's remained Georgia's league. And every single time there's this giant dust cloud during the week, folks hyping themselves up. I've fallen victim to this at least once or twice. I've picked Texas over Georgia. Not three times, though. And it's always Georgia. So why overthink the room? Give me Georgia against Texas and Give me Georgia over Texas. And you know what? If I hear some hot rumor, if I think Rasheed Biles is going to single handedly upend this entire dynamic, if I think Cam Coleman is going to upend this entire dynamic, Hollywood smothers about to run for 1500 including 148 and three scores against Georgia. And up in this dynamic, I'll change my pick. But I don't know that yet. Nor do you. So let's, let's just yield the floor to Kirby Smart until we have reason to think otherwise. And then in the Big Ten, or as they're calling it, America's new College Football Conference, patent pending, Ohio State's the favorite to win this league. Oregon's a hot team. Jesse, you see how many people are picking Oregon to win this thing. And then Indiana just ho hum coaches don't even have them top five. It's just a good for you guys. But it's, it's you peaked last year. Great story. But now order is restored. Okay. USC's fourth, Michigan fifth, Penn State sixth. And there's a big drop off by the way after the top three that fits right in line with perception. We'll see what reality is. So here's where my head's at right now. I think Ohio State's going to be really good. So does everyone else. I think Indiana is going to be really good and so does most everyone else. I think we're going to have a log jam here of one loss teams. That's kind of how I would envision the Big Ten playing out right now. And I think it'd be those three teams at the top there and the way that I think the tiebreakers would work and who I think it would send to Indianapolis right now is Ohio State and Indiana, which is a rematch of last year. Give me a different winner in that one. This is tentative. So this does not count as me picking against Indiana. Also, if I send you to the conference title game, am I really picking against you? I don't think so. But reasonable minds can disagree there. Ohio State over Indiana as of early August is where I'm leaning in the Big Ten. So our recap in the conference picture, our recap is Notre Dame was the best independent. I should note that. Congrats to the Irish. Miami wins the accurate. Brigham Young WINS the Big 12. Ohio State wins the Big Ten. Georgia wins the SEC. There's no big shock there. That's three favorites. And then Brigham Young's the number two on the odds board in the Big 12 courtesy of FanDuel now, it gets a little fun and it also gets a little interesting. And frankly, it gets a little tricky as we try and figure out how this seeding would look. So, as you may have heard, Notre Dame's not in a conference, so you have zero context clues as to how good they were by looking at that lineup. But I'll tell you how good they were. They went undefeated, so they're number one overall in the playoff rankings. I would think Ohio State would have to be number two as a result of them being the best team in the best conference. I would say Miami third. And I put Georgia fourth. And the reason Georgia would be fourth here is I'm just not sure even the SEC champion is making it through the SEC unscathed, maybe even two losses. But I'm thinking there's a greater likelihood that Georgia emerges kind of like they did last year, kind of beat up conference champ. But Miami, if their only loss is on the road at Notre Dame, and Notre Dame's your number one team, I just think that resume may be good enough where Miami just won a conference title, they look good in the process. I think they may lock down the number three spot. So Notre Dame, Ohio State, Miami, Georgia is your one through four. This is where I got to figure it out. So Indiana, if they lose the Big Ten championship game, they're not dropping far. And I think maybe they only drop behind Georgia as a result of Georgia being a conference champ. So I've got Indiana 5. I've got Texas 6. So I think it's kind of a similar vibe to last year where your teams that were participants in the Big Ten and the SEC championship games, they don't drop much, if at all. And then we got to figure out what the committee does with Big 12 champion Brigham Young. And I also had to figure out if we could have two Big 12 teams. Now, I played with this scenario for a second. I thought to myself, self, what if Texas Tech goes undefeated regular season? What if Brigham Young's only loss is at home to Notre Dame and they go to the Big 12 title game and Brigham Young wins? At that point, do I think Texas Tech is going to go from being an undefeated top five team to all the way out of the rankings? I don't think they would. So to be very clear, if that's like one loss, Brigham Young against undefeated Texas Tech and Brigham Young wins it, I think you got two Big 12 teams in the playoff. I think maybe there's one more blemish for Texas Tech. Therefore, I think Brigham Young is your seven seed. I guess the better way to put that is the Big 12 champ is your seven seed. And in this case it's Brigham Young. And I think Texas Tech dropped out, which is kind of a wild scenario. But in this scenario, that's how it worked out. Give me Oregon at 8, Oklahoma at 9, LSU at 10, USC at 11. Certain staff members are shaking their head. You want to doubt Lincoln Riley? Good. You've been very successful over the last half decade, but that's about to come to an abrupt halt. Put that 11 seed in your pipe and smoke it. Jesse. Not in the building, though. And then 12th is Boise State. Look, we threw army and Navy around. Who else did we throw in? We threw utsa, we threw unlv, I tossed New Mexico in. There was some Billy Napier smoke at JMU for a little while. Still is. Fire's not out in there for the time being. Let's put Boise state in the G5 seat there. The obligatory G6. Excuse me, G6, 12 seat. I don't think. If you're listening on podcasts and you're a visual learner, I don't quite think you understand what just happened here, because it's time to look at the bracket. And I don't quite think people understand what it means if, for example, Brigham Young is the 7 seed and LSU is the 10 seed. I'll tell you what it means. It means LSU playing a playoff game in Provo, Utah in December. It means the greatest clash of cultures in the history of this country. I'm talking about Revolutionary War, up to and including everything that's ever happened in the history of this country. If people from Thibodeau, Louisiana, Storm, Provo, Utah, we've never seen anything like it. That is irresistible force, that is immovable object greater than any WrestleMania ever gave us. And that's not even to determine the outcome of the game. That's just who survives and kind of makes it to the game, so to speak. So we've got lsu, Brigham Young playing in round one. This would give us USC at Texas in round one. I've got Oklahoma going on the road to Oregon and then Indiana as a result of being the 5 seed, which again, in this brief history of the 12 team playoff era, that's been the spot you want to be in. They draw Boise. So how would this shake out? Firstly, up in Eugene. This is Dan Lanning's shot. Okay, Dan Lanning, I think he just had a really good year. He's the eight seed. Okay, so he's in the Playoff. And they've been bounced emphatically two years in a row. They've got to win that game. I think they do. So I think Oregon over Oklahoma is how I'd pick it right now. Again, I've got entire of August or the entirety of August changed my mind. Indiana would route Boise. LSU goes into Brigham Young, and I think they leave a part of their soul there, but I think they win the game because they just be better. You also got to understand and more on my thinking here in a second. If LSU's made the playoff, that means Lane got that group of players to come together, and that means they gelled, they coalesced, and they're probably clicking pretty good by this point. USC at Texas in round one's awesome. It's a uniform game. It's Lincoln Riley coming home. Although Lincoln Riley is a West Texas guy, so I don't think he would call Austin home. And I don't think they would welcome him home. And I don't think it matters because they're going to lose to Texas. So give me Texas over usc. But Lincoln Riley made the playoff, Jesse, so y' all can shut up. No hot seat. Lincoln Riley made the playoffs. That's what we needed from him. Playoff or bust. Well, playoff. So no bust. Again, if you're listening on podcast, there are some of us out here who fought against playoff expansion. I'm one of them. I also freely admit to you, I think the sport of college football has grown into 12 teams being perfect because the top of the sport got flattened like play. D'oh. And so as a result, look at the second round of this playoff. These are your matchups. If you're listening somewhere driving around in Waterloo, Iowa, this would be Oregon going to Notre Dame. This would be Georgia going to Indiana. LSU goes to Ohio State. Miami goes to Texas. Oh, no, they don't, do they? No, I'm messing with you. No, they don't. That's the way it should be. We should have two rounds of playoff games on camp. I plural of campus. But we don't. So we still get awesome matchups. They're just going to be in sterile NFL stadiums because that's how we do the playoff right now. But nevertheless, Oregon, Notre Dame, Georgia, Indiana, lsu, Ohio State and Miami Texas. I guess if you could hand pick the lineups, maybe you could make some tweaks here and there and improve it. But you can't improve that by much. Like, that's it. That's an insane second round there. So I'll take Notre Dame over Oregon, that's my one seed, and they're sitting there rested. They're ready to go. They've got last year still fresh on their mind. And what that would mean for Oregon, we can figure that out. That's well down the road. I think I'd go Indiana over Georgia. The what I'm thinking there is, if Indiana's in the playoff, they had the first round game and then they get Georgia. And this, this spot historically has not been good. Indiana is the only team that's figured out how to play rested in the playoffs. Georgia has suffered twice in two years in this role. So I think they make it a third year because in this scenario, that means Josh Hoover ended up being really good. And that means I've got Indiana, maybe the best coaching staff in the country, if not one of the top two, top three in the country. Georgia staff, not bad either. But if Indiana's humming by that point, you probably have an edge at quarterback, I would guess. Okay, LSU and Ohio State. I lean Ohio State, and that's just an organization thing. That's just. They've got a bunch of folks who have been there, done that, and are trying to do it again. That's Julian saying, second time around. I just think I'd lean them at the moment. And Miami and Texas, that's. That's really, really tough. But I'm going to lean Texas ever so slightly right now. I'm going to lean Texas. That's a, that's a 51, 49 coin flip. Virtually in my mind right now. Your final four is Notre Dame, Indiana on one side of the bracket, Ohio State, Texas on the other side of the bracket. What a time for the state of Indiana. Just what a moment. This is the biggest occurrence since the birth of Larry Bird, I would say, in the state of Indiana. I think Notre Dame wins this game right now in August. And on the other side, I think I would very so slightly lean Texas. I think that that combination of players, plus them getting on a roll in the postseason at its best, is a really, really tough out. And Notre Dame Texas is an unbelievable national championship game. Coin up in the air. It lands Notre Dame. Notre Dame won the national championship in August with that schedule, Jesse, not battle tested at all. Imagine a team with that kind of schedule winning it all. It's almost like the schedule didn't matter once the playoffs started. So, and I want to emphasize in early August, that is how I see this entire picture playing out. Now here's the nightmare scenario. The nightmare scenario is this is a perfect bracket And I mess it up in late August because I see some things go into some practices, I read some things on some message boards. I get influenced by corrupt members of the staff, and all of a sudden I got Penn State with a first round by somehow having won the Big Ten. I'm trying to guard against it, is what I'm saying. But none of us are perfect. None of us are perfect. And even when we are kids, coaches and officials can screw it up for you, famously. That's happened to me a lot. People don't know that I picked 100% winners last year in games that kids, coaches and officials did not screw up. So prayers up for us all. All right, let's move on. Coaches poll dropped today. I don't know if you heard this. Let me make sure this screen is right. There we go. So the coaches poll dropped today. Top 25. Some of it makes sense. Some of it is so bad. I thought that we were looking at typos. I thought it was. I thought we were getting punked. Dead serious. Now, not in the top five. But there is a team in the top 25 that defies all conventional wisdom. And I can only think it's wizardry at work. I'll talk to you about it in a second. So your top five, Ohio State's number one. That's pretty supreme. Respect the top five. For the record, I couldn't see. I don't think anyone's going to rank Georgia number one. I could see someone ranking any of the other top six number one. So Ohio State, Oregon, Georgia, Texas. Notre Dame is the top five. Indiana was six, Notre Dame at five. I'm not going to argue a coach's poll in August. I would just humbly love to know what's the explanation there, because I think Notre Dame belongs higher than five. So what's the explanation? Best I can tell, I think some coaches held it against them that they opted out of the bowl game. I think there's some of that residual. And that's fair, if that's the way you feel. I think some other coaches look and say, I don't like their schedule. Translation, I wish I had that schedule. And I think they just took it out on them, knowing it won't matter anyway. And so as best I can tell, that's why Notre Dame's ranked number five, Indiana's number six. I lived this life last year so you don't have to. Don't do this to him. Don't let Kurt Signetti get you in his crosshairs. He will ruin You. I was showing Jesse a film, a Johnny Depp film earlier today called Secret Window. Good movie. Jesse doesn't believe in movies and so he hasn't seen it. Read the book, Jesse. And there's a crazy guy who, as it turns out, is not real. Spoiler alert. 25 year old movie. And he looks at Johnny Depp at some point and he says, I will burn your life and everyone in it like a cane field and a high wind. The reason I remember the line is that's essentially what Kurt Signetti told me last year every time I picked against him. And you people, you people have the audacity to put this man sixth. When the teams that he went 30 against last year are ranked 1 2. Have we learned nothing? No, not we. I learned I won't have them outside the top five, but the coaches do. And you guys actually have to face him. That's the crazy part. I just get to sit here. Miami's at seven. Fair. Does that conclude Tier one? This is a growing point of debate in the college football ethosphere right now. Are there seven teams and then the end of tier one or could you make the argument for like an A and M or an Oklahoma or Ole Miss? My tier one stops at seven, but I don't know that there's a massive drop off. It's not like a touchdown differential on a neutral field. JP Poll coming soon, but the coaches have A and M at 8, Oklahoma 9, Ole Miss at 10, Bama 11. So you know, in any rankings in the preseason, there's going to be this kind of glob of Tier 2 SEC teams, those conditional teams. And I think they kind of got it right here. In fact, LSU is 13th. I'm going to skip over Texas Tech for a second. I'll come back to him. A and M, Oklahoma, ole Miss, Bama, LSU. That means seven of the top 13 in the coaches poll are SEC. The coaches are in the tank for the SEC. The coaches are drunk on SEC bias. Everybody is. These are like a bunch of if then teams. Basically. Texas has a lot that they have going for them. These other teams like Bama with the quarterback situation in the run game, ditto for LSU, A&M. All the talent they lost to the draft. Got a lot of churn in the offensive line. Oklahoma, same thing. Run game. How good is Mater this year? He comes back from injury, a lot of if. And any of those teams, if those ifs get answered in the affirmative, they could be fringe national championship contenders. I think that's fair. Texas Techs at 12, which begs the question, where would they be if they had Sourcebee? I was wondering if they have Source B, do the coaches rank them top 10? My guess would be around nine or 10. They're at 12 with Will Hammond. Okay, we move on. 14, 16, 17, 19 and 22 are big 10 teams. So it's kind of weird when you look at the Tier 2 of the SEC. Just below them begins the Tier 2 of the Big Ten. Now we don't know if this is going to be reality, but if I had to do my top 25 right now, I think it would feel somewhat similar. And that is, I think the top of the Big Ten is better than the top of the sec. Then I think the second level of the SEC is probably a little bit better than the second level of the Big Ten. The that's why answering that question is one of the most important storylines in college football this year. Because if that's wrong, if A and M and Oklahoma, Alabama, Ole Miss, lsu, some combination of those kind of crap out and Washington is a surprise team this year. Bryce Underwood just balls out of his mind at Michigan. USC really is a playoff caliber team. Penn State goes 10 and 2 or better. Well, that upended the whole sport because that means the top of the Big Ten and the second tier of the Big Ten were better. Or do we have a total inverse effect? Is the top of the SEC better? And then there's a huge gap and then the Big Ten's Tier 1 and Tier 2 kind of snuggles between the SECs 1 and 3. I don't know, but I would think it kind of works out this way where you've got USC in there, Michigan, Penn State, Washington, and then I was at 22. I think it's kind of fair so far. I don't have a big problem with all of this. And mixed in between there, you've got Brigham Young at 15, SMU's in there at 20. I think maybe, just maybe I'll go a little higher than that on smu. We'll see. We'll see how that works out. Tennessee's in there. Tennessee seeing some opinions on them. Seeing Tennessee start to have a little bit more spark, which is interesting. We'll see how that quarterback battle plays out. It is very much a quarterback battle right now. Jesse, is this a typo at 23? Because I see the Clemson tiger paw and certainly that can't be reality. Certainly you meant to put something else. Certainly this is just a graphical oversight. No, they're telling me that the coaches ranked Clemson 23rd. Drugs. Dabbo himself had to have looked at this when it came out and said who's really 23rd though? They're like, no sir, we're ranked based on what I've got to think the sit down Dabo did with us on the speaker series had to be watched by enough people that they just got roped in. I'm not saying Clemson may go 11 and one for all I know, but there is no basis for the most hardcore of Clemson fanatics on this planet to rank that team in the preseason. So much so that Clemson addict friend of the program on Twitter said, if we're being 100% honest with ourselves, like brutally honest, 76 team coming off of nine players getting drafted, we're only ranked to give LSU a ranked win and we won. The SEC media machine thinks they're slick. Now I want to remind you this is not the Associated Press Top 25. These are the coaches. So there's a growing conspiracy that the coaches are in the tank for the sec. I don't even know who all votes on this, but like just picture Bob Chesney if he's an AP voter saying what do I want to do here? I think I want to rank Clemson because four months later it's going to help LSU in the eyes of the committee to have had a ranked win in week one. Go Bruins. Is that really the conspiracy right now? If Clemson addict says it, who am I to push against it? I can't believe I can't square Clemson. It's hard for me to square him in the top 30. Number 23 is insane. Houston's 24, Missouri's 25. So the teams that aren't here, Louisville, Arizona, Illinois, Illinois. Again you're kind of I, I don't have a problem if you're projecting with your ranking. So like if Illinois had a good year last year but they lost a lot and you're going to bump them down. Okay, but what are you projecting with Clemson? Is my whole question. I don't want to get too up in arms about this because it is August 4th after all. But neither of the Arizona's are in there. Florida's not in there, Auburn's not in there. And you may be thinking to yourself, well those aren't good teams, they shouldn't be ranked. Okay, but you see who is is my point. Great job coaches. I got big news on this piece of paper that Jesse has freshly printed off so recently. It's still a little warm and he has put in my hand. Pacestatematerial.com is your one stop shop for all things wardrobe. Has been for a while. A mountain of new items are about to get dumped in there, by the way. Not that the old ones are bad. We've still got a ton of good stuff in there. The football is coming. Shirts are moving and moving in a big way. I'm just telling you. Alex has got some new stuff that is about to roll off the assembly line. However, that's not the big news, although it is big news. The big news is last year a lot of people, as it turns out in our audience are designers and they wanted to design shirts. We just didn't have time. It was the middle of the season and it was one of our projects. That's why Jesse took a break in July to get his hands around this sort of thing. So you wanted your shot and you got it. So we're about to launch our first ever merch design contest. And there are cash prizes involved here, so you really need to pay attention. As of midnight tonight, Tonight is Tuesday, August 4th. So if you're listening to the replay, Wednesday, it's already live. As of midnight tonight, patestatematerial.com the design contest will launch. We're going to run this thing for 14 days. That's how long we're going to take submissions. Then there's going to be a seven day period where the best ones are going to be available literally on the website. Your mom and dad can buy them. In fact, I would encourage your mom and dad to buy them because we're not going to choose the winners of the design contest. We're just going to kind of choose who makes the cut. And then the audience is going to choose based on their purchasing who wins this thing. And then there are cash prizes for 1, 2 and 3. These are not small numbers in these cash prizes. There's more on the graphic than there is on the paper. Oh, well, I thought we were. Jesse says we're actually giving out more money than is written on this piece of paper. And there's a lot of. This is my money. We're giving out a lot of money. I'm giving out a lot of money. That's fine, that's fine. It's just going to come out of someone's paycheck, but that's fine. So I would strongly encourage everyone who reached out last year and you know who you are, or if you didn't reach out last year and you just think you're really good at designing stuff, this could be pretty lucrative for you at the very least. And hopefully eventually for me one day. All right, let's move on. Amazon Health AI presents Painful Thoughts I
[35:48]
Josh Pate
I can't stop scratching my downtown. Yeah, but I'm not itching to go downtown and tell a receptionist I'm here to talk about my downtown. Some things you'd rather type than say out loud.
[36:02]
Jesse
There's no question too embarrassing for Amazon Health AI.
[36:05]
Brandon Walker
Chat your symptoms and get virtual care 24. 7 Healthcare just got less painful.
[36:12]
Josh Pate
Wait, I came in for two things. How is this $47? Alright, we're gonna need a plan here. Just start simple with bank of America Advantage Safe Balance Banking. No overdraft item fees, no monthly maintenance fee. If you're under 25 as a new checking customer, you can earn $100 when you open an account and and make qualifying Zeller debit transactions. Oh, that's actually really simple Safe Balance Banking. One less thing to figure out. Learn more@bofa.com earn 100 terms and conditions apply. Bank of America and a member fdic.
[36:42]
Brandon Walker
This is Tony Ayo from the Real Report with Tony Ayo and Uncle Murder. You ever notice how everything keeps going up? Rent's going up, streaming services are going up. Even your favorite burrito spot suddenly thinks salsa should cost extra. But with Boost Mobile, you and your phone bill don't have to play the Willis Go up Soon game because Boost Mobile has an unlimited talk, text and data plan at a price that'll never go up. It's the same price you'll pay for life, meaning you're set to never worry about your bill increasing again for as long as you're on the plan. While the world keeps finding new ways to nickel and dime you. Boost Mobile gives you unlimited wireless at one set price for life. Imagine something in your budget actually staying the same. You'll pay the same for unlimited wireless when you're posting mirror selfies in your 20s. And when you're posting mirror selfies in retirement. Some things never change. Switch now for unlimited wireless at a price that'll never go up. Only at boost mobile. After 30 gigabytes, customers may experience slower speeds. Customers will pay $25 a month as long as they remain active on the Boost Unlimited plan.
[37:43]
Josh Pate
You've never been one to settle. Stand down or stand still. You're a lifelong learner, energized by excellence. There's a fire inside you you can't ignore. You've got competition to outrun, momentum to build on, and your own high standards to meet. Stop now. Not a chance At Capella University, we help you catch what you're chasing because you've always had the drive. Now go earn the degree. Capella University. What can't you do? Visit Capella Edu to learn more.
[38:16]
Jesse
What a day last night. That's not how I want you to intro it. Prez, when you cut this in a little while. We've got a lot of friends of this program. We've got some people we don't care for. We've got some people who have been outright hostile towards us in the past. But that doesn't mean that we have to completely ignore opportunity. And Brandon Walker, Burger King. Brandon, as he's kind of become known, is someone who we've been familiar with for a long time. Brandon Walker and I have corresponded behind the scenes in what I would call a hostilely cordial manner. In the past, he said some things about me publicly. I've said some things about him publicly. Most of what I've said has been true. Most of what he said I think is more a defense mechanism than anything else. It's kind of like the kid saying, I'm running away from home, I'm never coming back. He doesn't mean it. It's just, what else is he gonna say? He's seven. What else is Brandon Walker gonna say in a lot of these situations? But here's the thing. He used to have a show. It went away. Some conflicting opinions as to why, but it went away and now it's back. And so I got an offer. I got an invite to Barstool headquarters in Chicago a couple of weeks ago. People thought I was going up there for Big Ten media days. It was great. No one asked why I was in Chicago, but I didn't go up there for that. I went up there to go record a lengthy 90 minute sit down with Brandon Walker for his debut show, which happened Monday night. And it's like 2 hours, 45 minutes total. Probably not a great idea because his voice was shot in the first 20 minutes. I don't know if you saw that or not. A lot of you did. Big viewership on this show. But it was the debut and I wanted to go up there and I wanted to participate. And I've got some more news about how that's not quite finished yet. But I also got to tell you, there's some other people I know up there that work in that Chicago office. And one of the highlights of my trip was not Brandon Walker. I would not call Brandon Walker the highlight of the trip. Our good, close personal friend Ben Mintz, I think, was probably the highlight of my trip. And Mince, he suffered an injury a few weeks ago. He's been hobbled. He's been on the shelf. But you know what? Nothing is impossible. And so one of the first pieces of audio and video that I want to play for you is sort of Brandon Walker recapping the scenes when I first walked in the building. And I gotta say, for a dude who stretches the truth a lot, this is a very accurately told story. Let's roll it.
[40:41]
Brandon Walker
Ben Mintz and Big T. Ben Mince broke his leg. Ben Mintz broke his leg three weeks ago and has not moved an inch since. We can't get him to work.
[40:53]
Jesse
We can't get him.
[40:54]
Brandon Walker
He has to be led to the bathroom to pee. People have to hold it for him.
[40:57]
Jesse
They got to wipe him.
[40:58]
Brandon Walker
They got to do everything. We have to send Crane in to.
[41:01]
Jesse
To bathe him every night, and he is useless.
[41:03]
Brandon Walker
You show up, Ben Mince jumps out of his chair and skips. He skips to you like, oh, my God, Josh Pate.
[41:09]
Jesse
Yeah, the. You don't have to hold that. The boom arm will hold it up. So I walked in and Mince. Mince drug a peg leg all the way down the hallway, yelling, let's talk about Peptides. I want to talk to you about Peptides. We'll talk later. Well, you gonna be in Nashville for Ole Miss Louisville. We'll talk later.
[41:27]
Brandon Walker
Ben Menz is sitting there. All of a sudden, he goes, pen,
[41:35]
Jesse
I don't know that you can appreciate the moment if you don't know Ben Mentz. You can't really appreciate the moment. It's the most surreal thing, because I knew about men's injury. It's been well documented, and I have seen the videos. And I, like, I thought for a little while the dude would never walk again. And I walked in that building, and you're, like, taking your sunglasses off because it's bright outside. You're adjusting your eyes, and boom. This was captured. This is like still photography images of when I first walked in. So there's Mincey, that unmistakable posture. And he's in a. He's in a boot there. He's in a walking boot, like an Alabama running back after the LSU game. And then we start walking down the hallway. It's Brandon Walker. Like, we're on kind of a time crunch. And so he's trying to peel me away. And in that picture on the right, Mincey tried to chase us down the hallway a little ways. So that's. That's an accurate portrayal of what happened there. Amazing trip though. Amazing encounter there. Get well soon, Mensi. We're all pulling for you. So anyway, this was a wide ranging conversation. You can find it over on the Brandon Walker College Football Show YouTube channel. What a. What a combo of words coming out of my mouth here on the show. But here's the thing, okay? And it's going to happen a lot, I would imagine, because he's doing a solo show. As we all know, I am very measured and calculated and responsible with the words and predictions that come out of my mouth because I hold myself to account. If I pick Indiana to go 06 and they go six and oh, I'm throwing the clown nose on, okay? So we do a healthy inventory and I try to keep myself honest. Brandon Walker lives in a fantasy world. He has a hot air balloon with absolutely no sandbags. And so sometimes when you finally get face to face with that kind of person, you can get them on tilt really quickly and you can see that they're about to go a direction because it's in the eyes. You can see it in the eyes. You can read the body language. And what you do at that point is you just nudge them. So Mississippi State comes up last night. I'll just give you a quick example. This happened like a hundred times over the course of 90 minutes, but one of them was Mississippi State's his team. Mississippi State's over under win total is 4 1/2 at FanDuel right now. With that information on the top of mind, let's hear how Brandon Walker thinks the Bulldogs are going to do this year.
[43:50]
Brandon Walker
We might have some things percolating down there.
[43:52]
Jesse
You're going to go to a bowl. The Mario Taylor. Yeah, I know who he is. I've read the preview magazines. You're going to go to a bowl.
[43:58]
Brandon Walker
Well, I went to a bowl last
[43:59]
Jesse
year, but so I mean, what is the standard this year? Like, we're cooking some things. Everyone speaks in these hypotheticals. Eight wins. Are you high? Eight wins.
[44:09]
Brandon Walker
Eight.
[44:10]
Jesse
And you know what?
[44:11]
Brandon Walker
We got Oklahoma and Alabama coming in back to back. We're getting one of them.
[44:16]
Jesse
You got that right. 8 and 4 minimum. At least 8 and 4. And either ou or bama fall victim to Mississippi State. And it's not like I'm down on Mississippi State. The way to handle this is the over unders. Four and a half.
[44:30]
Brandon Walker
Let's.
[44:30]
Jesse
Let's call six and six. But no, we got to go eight and four. So it's important to get that sort of Thing on the record early because that's on the Internet now. You can't get rid of that. That'll live forever. It's no different than that kid from Texas catching that dagger touchdown pass right in his face. And the live broadcast catching him right there in the corner of the end zone. The lights are on. No one's home dead behind the eyes, which came up, by the way, and I got him to discuss it on record at length. So here's the heartbreaking part that sometimes happens in life. The heartbreaking part that you can only imagine if you get into the media business is some people you like, some people you're indifferent on, and some people you despise. And you would think, oh, the folks you like, those are the ones you have chemistry with. And, oh, man, the folks who you can't stand. Oh, you'd never. It'd be oil and water. No, no, no. The heartbreaking part is when you love folks but you have no on air chemistry with them. And then you turn around and you sit down with that and it just clicks. You know how it is, Jesse, the heartbreaking takeaway from all this is it was great. The feedback we got was incredible to the point where I'm happy to announce right here on this show tonight that that was only the first half of a home. And home, there's no buyout here. You can't go Indiana, Notre Dame, you can't get out of this one. And so I'm not going to give you exact dates, but it'll be in August, it'll be later this month. Think about these words. Jesse, take camera one. Bradley, think about these words on this stage, in this physical space. Brannon Walker in studio for part two of whatever you want to call what happened last night. Subscribe to the channel, please. Both of them. We move on. They're watching us in State College, Pennsylvania. Franklin, Tennessee. Daytona Beach, Florida. We do have great news to report. It's a little delayed, frankly. We should have talked about it the other night and I just forgot. So we had a question about a rivalry. A rivalry I grew up on. A rivalry that should be eternal. Evergreen should never die. USC and Notre Dame is back after a brief absence. It won't be played this year or next year or the year after that. But the good news is it's coming back in 2030. So one of you asked, how am I supposed to feel about this? You know, am I supposed to celebrate that it's back, or am I supposed to be mad that I gotta wait till 2030? Well, 1000% celebrate that it's back. I mean, this. This was a historic rivalry that it looked like we were gonna lose, and now we do get it back. It's in 2030. You can be mad that it's come to this. I was. I know I was. I view rivalries in the kind of light that I don't even view the playoff in. I don't even view the concept of the national championship game in the same light. It's like the Pope meme, man. I'm holding Notre Dame, USC here, above and beyond the college Football playoff logo. Cause I grew up like that. I was raised like that. I was raised properly. And so rivalries mean everything to me. It's the very bedrock and foundation of college football. Rivalries should be more secure than Fort Knox. And yet we let people touch them and we let people mess around with them. And it is my opinion, if I were college football commissioner and everything I just said goes, I wouldn't care who the AD at Notre Dame is or USC is or the head coach at Notre Dame or USC at any given point in time. You sign up to be part of Notre Dame, you're signing up to play USC every year. You sign up to be part of usc, you're signing up to play Notre Dame every year. Case closed. And if you don't like that, the answer is not, oh, let's rework the schedule. The answer is head on down the road and go somewhere else. Go coach somewhere where you do have full autonomy over the schedule. But it just so happens that this is ordained, okay? You don't get to touch this. It's like the sky is blue, water is wet. Notre Dame and USC play every year, and if you don't like it, that's a you problem. And if it. If it messes up your path to the playoff, your head's in the wrong place. So I'm not casting aspersions here. You remind me to tell you who I had to ignore a call from Jesse. It's unbelievable. So rivalries are everything to me. So, yes, I was irate when this happened, and, yes, I'm very happy that it's back right now. Here's what we have to resist, okay? And this is a cautionary tale. It's not the last time we're going to have to deal with this. I want to make sure everyone understands playoff brain rot is a very, very big danger to college football. Playoff brain rot sounds like this. We got to make the playoff no matter what. And that means that if we got to Soften our schedule to do it, so be it. And if this rivalry has been played for 500 years, but moving it would help us go to the playoff, then so be it. No, no, no. And then there's this group of fans that I think have fallen victim to playoff brain rot. And that group of fans, no particular group here, but a generic group of fans, feral in nature. They wander the college football landscape and they say, well, why? Why should they play that game if it makes their path to the playoff tougher? Because it's college football. That's why. That's it. I don't have bullet point 2, 3, 4 and 5. Because it's college football. And it happens. This is the whole nature of the sport. It happens. Now, I do get the logic. I do get it. Just like Sark last year, Sark came to the end of the year, Texas is 9 and 3. They don't get in the playoff. And he looked and he said, now wait just a second. We could have easily scheduled Abilene Christian in week one instead of Ohio State. And it's a fact in his opinion, it's a fact in his opinion that had we just won 50 to nothing and then done everything else the rest of the way just like we did, we'd be in the playoffs. That is true and irrelevant because that's not how a competitor should think. But there is merit to the logic of it. So my gripe is not merely with people who want to do away with historic pillars of this sport in advancing their playoff likelihood. I also look at the entire rankings process. There's a big difference now. There's a big difference in when we get to the end of the year. And do we think that the resume justifies making the playoff? I'm starting way, way, way, way back in. Like the table of contents in this book, not on chapter nine. The table of contents is how does the playoff committee operate? How should they operate? And to me, what I would tweak is the way resumes are judged. Because I think there should be a world where there's a nine and three team. And I don't mean last year's Texas, but I mean any given year. If someone loaded their schedule up and they go nine and three against it and there's another P4 that went 11 and one, I want to live in a world where there's room to put 9 and 3 over 11 and 1. Because if you thought that just loading up on cream puffs was going to be this double barrel middle finger to the system, which is Basically what Indiana is doing with their out of conference schedule. Mind you, it's an embarrassing situation that Indiana's in right now. But you know what? There's like a part of me that can't even blame Indiana because number one, Indiana can do no wrong right now. But number two, Indiana's looking and saying, hey man, we already play in the Big Ten. If we take care of business in conference, it doesn't matter if we play three high school teams out of conference, you won't box us out of that playoff. Watch and see. And you know what? You won't. Playoff committee won't. It may happen as soon as this year. What if Indiana's 10 and 2 this year didn't play anything with a pulse out of conference and they're being compared to a comparable 10 and 2, maybe even a 9 and 3 from somewhere? You're not going to keep them out. You won't. Playoff committee won't. They know they won't. They've spoken publicly about it. So, you know, until that dynamic changes a little bit, you're going to deal with playoff brain rot as the basis and the foundation of the logic for some of these decisions. Anyway, I am glad we got USC and Notre Dame back. I hope this is the last time we have to deal with that. But it won't be okay. Transfer portal was a buzz this past year and we didn't have a post spring portal window. So I kind of like that world that we live in. But also now that fall camp's opening up, like it gets real. So we find out. When you look at the industry composite, you look at the On3 portal rankings and you think, you know. But then after every single year we look back at that top 15, top 20, and inevitably there were guys that you expected to be impact players that weren't. And this is like the great period of unknown where we're trying to figure out like, LSU goes and gets Sam Levitt. Is Sam Levitt going to be a true difference maker? At quarterback, is Sam Levitt a guy that if LSU draws like Texas in the SEC championship game, which would be a second time they played him this year, or if they're playing Ohio State in like a quarterfinal and it's 24, 24 and quarterback's got to go win a game, can he do it? Jordan Seaton, how does he pan out? Because that's a big deal for LSU because they were the worst team running the ball in the league last year and there were some woeful historic powers in terms of rushing numbers in the sec, but LSU was the worst. But LSU tried to make moves to correct that. So that's a top offensive tackle. I think he was the best offensive tackle in the thing and Peak was the only other one that could have maybe challenged for that and he got hurt. So they were last in the SEC in rushing last year. They are making moves definitively to try and upgrade that they got. You mind me, Ellen? Yeah, I got to say it slow. They got Jordan Ross. I mean, those are two really, really big time edge players. So if LSU falters this year, it won't be for a lack of immediately trying at Miami. This is kind of a story every year. Miami is very active in the portal. Damon Wilson kind of coming in. I think it may be the wrong way to look at it to just say, well, Miami, everything about them depends on how much they can replenish the lost production of Ruben Bane and Akeem mezador. They lost 22 sacks. Well, Damon Wilson only had nine last year. First off, no one only has nine sacks. That's the first thing. The second thing is it's not like the rest of the team's a carbon copy. What if Miami, oh, I don't know, Maybe is only 82% as effective in their pass rush as they were last year, but they're better in the secondary, especially at corner, better ball skills. And oh, by the way, they got Darian Mensah down there now and he's an upgraded quarterback. That's a what if? I believe it, so it's kind of a prediction for me. But technically it's a what if. What if they don't have to be exactly what they were. What if there are more than one or two ways to skin the old cat, as Meemaw would say, and Mario Cristobal would also say. Cooper Barkate coming in, just casually pairing an 1100 yard receiver last year with Malachi. Tony first world, man. That's the world Miami lives in. And Texas, of course. This is the most all in of all in teams. And in the portal going to get Cam Coleman. Cam Coleman, there's a world this year where he matches his career production. Jesse, did we say around 1300 career for Cam Coleman right now? Somewhere around there he could have 1300 this year. So, I mean, Ryan Wingo's on that team. They're loaded. They went and got smothers. They went and got really brown. Two tailbacks. Most teams out there would have died to have one of them. But also Rasheed Biles, one of my favorite players out of the transfer portal. Huge addition at linebacker. He's not going to catch the ball, he's not running the ball, he's not throwing the ball. So he's not going to get as much attention. But man, the mentality they need to play with. Or in other words, when you think back to Texas, Georgia games and you think about Georgia just having a little more of that. Rasheem Biles is one of the kinds of guys that you bring in in order to, you know, maybe change that dynamic a little bit. Indiana had the number one portal class in the country per on three, and it was a small class, but, but it was a really, really high impact class. Josh Hoover, of course, at quarterback, Josh Hoover, you know, if you think about Curtis Rourke two years ago and then them upgrading to Fernando Mendoza, I'm not going to say those are the two bookends of the scale because it's possible that Josh Hoover is better than Fernando Mendoza. Who knows? That'd be tough. But I'm asking if he's between those two, where is he on that scale? Little born Rourke or a little closer to Fernando Mendoza? Because really that's kind of what it comes down to here. Then we got Nick Marsh, the Erik Singleton of the Big Ten, as I like to call him. And by that I mean Nick Marsh is a potential superstar caliber player that was just in the wrong situation last year. And there are few truths in an uncertain world. But I promise you he's in the right situation at Indiana and there are a lot of, a lot of passes to be caught there. I was going to say a lot of balls to go around, but that would have been an early August immunity and we don't want to do that. We don't want to take ourselves down that road this early. So I get the vibe and got the vibe when I was talking to Sig when I went up there. Perez, you remember, you were, you were setting up the cameras and I was asking them about Hoover and Signetti just said, we got what we need there. Yeah, I think we got what we need there. Well, that's the only scouting report I need. So the other guys, I mean, Drew Mestemaker, this hall in general that they brought in at Oklahoma State, just taking Drew Mestemaker, who was a 4800 yard, 40 plus touchdown guy last year, could end up being the best quarterback in the country this year. And hardly anyone has him on his radar unless you're a diehard college football fan. Caleb Hawkins also transferred up there from North Texas. That's a 1400 yard rusher last year. That team in general is going to be fun to watch because there are going to be some people out there who halfway know what they're talking about in the sport that pick Oklahoma State to play for a conference title and that would not be the biggest shock in the world. Justice Haynes, he's gone from Bama to Michigan and now to Georgia Tech. And if you think about what Georgia Tech doesn't have, you think about Haynes King being out the door and then the offensive coordinator is gone and probably the guy that would have been the starting quarterback is gone. And you think about some of the portal moves they made elsewhere trying to gain size. Overall, there's a lot of uncertainty. Justice Haynes is certain he's a good player. He may lead the ACC guys, he may lead power four in total carries because I can promise you he got paid to come down there and they're going to get their money's worth out of Justice Haynes. Eric Singleton, I just mentioned him. This is a guy who at Georgia Tech two years ago was a really good player. Went to Auburn last year and did what everyone did at Auburn last year, which was disappear. And now he pops back on the scene at Florida, playing with Dallas Wilson, playing with Vernell Brown, playing with Aaron Filo, who I think will win the quarterback job there. Eric Singleton's a really good player and he is not alone down there. He can be a really, really good breakout player this year. And then Rocco Becht who has Jesse, you know, he's, he's like. I'm trying to think of who I want to compare him to. It's like the, he's like the new cam rising guy who's just been around forever and he's your quarterback now. You own him, he's your quarterback. So whatever he does, you do. You guys are one of the same this year, fourth year starter at quarterback, veteran running backs, veteran tight end, kind of a veteran team guys got an old team up there, Jesse, that work work for Indiana. So those are some of the impact portal players that I've got an eye on. Not an exhaustive list obviously.
[61:22]
Brandon Walker
Before we had ATT business wireless coverage, our delivery GPS wasn't the most reliable. Once our driver had to do a 14 point turn to get back on route. A 14 point turn, an influencer, even livestream the whole thing. Not good for business. Now with AT&T business wireless routes are updating on the fly and deliveries are on time. And the influencer did get us 53 new followers though.
[61:47]
Jesse
AT&T business wireless connecting changes everything
[61:52]
Brandon Walker
Amazon
[61:53]
Jesse
Health AI presents painful thoughts why did I search the Internet for answers to my cold sore problem?
[62:01]
Josh Pate
Now I'm stuck down a rabbit hole
[62:03]
Jesse
filled with images of alarmingly graphic source in various stages of ooze. I can clear my search history, but I can never unsee that. Don't go down the rabbit hole. Amazon Health AI gets you the right care fast. Healthcare just got less painful.
[62:22]
Josh Pate
Wait, I came in for two things.
[62:25]
Jesse
How is this $47?
[62:27]
Josh Pate
All right, we're going to need a plan here. Just start simple with bank of America Advantage Safe Balance Banking. No overdraft item fees, no monthly maintenance fee. If you're under 25 plus as a new checking customer, you can earn $100 when you open an account and make qualifying Zeller debit transactions.
[62:42]
Jesse
Oh, that's actually really simple.
[62:44]
Josh Pate
Safe balance banking. One less thing to figure out. Learn more@bofa.com earn 100 terms and conditions apply. Bank of America and a member FDIC
[62:52]
Brandon Walker
this is Tony Ayo from the Real Report with Tony Ayo and Uncle Murder. You ever notice how everything keeps going up? Rents going up? Streaming services are going? Even your favorite burrito spot suddenly thinks salsa should cost extra. But with Boost Mobile, you and your phone bill don't have to play the Will this go up soon? Game Because Boost Mobile has an unlimited talk, text and data plan at a price that'll never go up. It's the same price you'll pay for life, meaning you're set to never worry about your bill increasing again for as long as you're on the plan. While the world keeps finding new ways to nickel and dime you. Boost Mobile gives you unlimited wireless at one set price for life. Imagine something in your budget actually staying the same. You'll pay the same for unlimited wireless when you're posting mirror selfies in your 20s. And when you're posting mirror selfies in retirement, some things never change. Switch now for unlimited wireless at a price that'll never go up, only at boost mobile. After 30 gigabytes, customers may experience slower speeds. Customers will pay $25 a month as long as they remain active on the Boost Unlimited Plan.
[63:56]
Jesse
It's a beautiful time of year. Camps are open, fall camps opening all over the country. And I got to tell you, this quarterback situation in college football from a preseason standpoint is unlike anything I remember in my lifetime. I was just looking like I opened my notes app this morning and I just started writing names of quarterbacks and this is not C.J. bailey's. Not even on this list as, as I got pointed out to me, DJ Lagway is. But I just wrote some names and I don't know, that's like 20 or 30 names there of guys who are notable. And I told Jesse earlier today, take the top 10, go, go to the Heisman odds at FanDuel. Take whoever they have ranked top 10, take them off the board and think about the names who are still there. If you take the top 10 quarterbacks in terms of preseason Heismanods off of that list, you've still got John Mateer, Marcel Reed, Lenora Sellers, Damond Williams, Will Hammond, either Austin Mack or Keelan Russell, Bear Bachmeier, Rocco Beck, Drew Master Maker, Kevin Jennings, Austin Simmons was slated to start for Lane last year. This is an insane quarterback year, which means the potential for week by week upsets greatly increases because any of those quarterbacks hot on any given Saturday could theoretically beat almost anyone else. It's going to be incredible. And if you think about the best of them filtering out over the course of a season, think about what the playoff bracket would look like, not even predicting the teams, just kind of think about the quarterbacks in the bracket. So that obviously is something to watch in fall camp. There are some quarterback battles that I really have my eye on. I think the Alabama quarterback battle is the most important one in the country. So Keelan Russell, Austin Mack, now I do owe you this. We're just going to delete this if it doesn't come to be. But I think I went through spring and I thought Keelan Russell would be the starting quarterback there. In my field, nothing's changed since spring, but my feel is Keelan Russell still ends up being their starter, like by November or something like that. And he may start week one, who knows? I do think there's some legitimacy to the theory that's floated around that if you have a little more trust in Austin Mack, you start Austin Mack understanding that from a psychological standpoint, from an ace in your back pocket standpoint, you don't have the toughest open to the season. They play East Carolina, they go to Kentucky, they got Florida State at home, and then they get into conference play against South Carolina. Point is, look, we saw last year with Bama, there is no gimme, but they should start five and oh. Should start five and oh. But if anything goes sideways at any point, I think you want to be able to say, all right, it's time to start Keelan Russell. Like that's, that feels like the start of a new season. If you do that, I'm not saying that's the way it'll go. But I think this quarterback battle is plenty competitive enough where that's the way it could go. Camp, I think opens there tomorrow at Tennessee. George McIntyre and Faison Brandon. My default stance in spring was it's George McIntyre's job to lose. And I still think that's the case. I just think it's razor tight because I think Faison Brandon is going to do a lot in fall camp and he's only going to get better, but he's going to do a lot in fall camp to, I think, challenge. There's, I think the fallback for Hypo either way is, hey, we got a pretty good offensive line here. We got a pretty good ground game here. The jury's still out on how good they'll be defensively Year one under Jim Knowles. But if you think about the style of team, you're not probably asking either one of these guys throw the ball 50 times a game. You're looking for the best decision maker. You're looking for the guy with the best poise. And if that's a true freshman by the time week one rolls around, so be it. And you're not married to that decision that you make in week one. But the one that has a lot of people scratching their head right now, and I'm with you is Clemson. Top 25 Clemson, the 23rd ranked team in the country according to the coaches, is in a situation where Chris Vezina's been there how many years, Jesse? Three. And he has not taken the job yet. And Tate Reynolds is there. And look, I'll be honest, when we went through spring, I listened to the feedback from Clemson and I, I kind of took this as a cosmetic quarterback battle. That's how I looked at it. We have them every year, but I don't think it is that. As we get closer to fall camp opening there, that just feels like a battle where I'd still pick Vezina to win the job. I just. He hasn't taken it yet. And remember, Garrett Riley is not the offensive coordinator there anymore. So you got both guys learning a new system. And there's some people around that program that would tell you, hey, Tate Reynolds maybe fits the Chad Morris offense a little better than Chris Fazina does. It just feels kind of weird. I don't know. I thought that'd be locked up already. And here's the other thing to keep in mind. They open against lsu at lsu and that offensive line, to be generous, it's probably in a state of flux coming into the year. It's not the place that I would want to go to figure things out. And so whoever gets the start there, you got to keep in mind it could be rocky in week one. So quarterback battles, that's something to watch. The hot seat thing, which I kind of talked about the other night, but since fall camps are opening, it's a good time to just remind everyone Pete Nakos did a really good job sort of summarizing all this over on on3.com earlier today. Yesterday or today. I saw it this morning. So yes, yes, of course. Mike Norvell's on the hot seat at fsu. Dave Aranda at Baylor. Yeah, the whole Belichick thing at North Carolina. Not a lot of sand left in the old hourglass there, I don't think. Mike Locksley at Maryland. Yes. Man, they threw Chris Creighton on here. Tough times at Eastern Michigan, but that's not who I wanted to talk to you about. I wanted to talk to you about Luke Fickle at Wisconsin. So Luke Fickle has had the worst quarterback injury luck of any major head coach over the last few years. Luke Fickle did not do himself any favors with how he filled out his offensive staff when he first got there a few years ago. That's ancient history. Can't do anything about that now. He's tried to rectify it since then. Here's what I'm trying to tell you. Unlike some of these other guys, if Luke Fickle gets fired this year, and I were North Carolina or someone like that, I'd go after Luke Fickle in a second. Because Luke Fickle is not a bad football coach. He got down the wrong road too far. You know, sometimes I look at these situations where maybe you turn down a dead end road and you just don't have enough gas to get back to the main road. But if I could just get this car back to the main road and fill it up a little bit, it'd be fine. It'll run fine. Luke Fickle, all I'm trying to wait and see is did he get down that dead end road too far? And if so, and if he gets fired, Luke Fickle would be in high demand. Like Pate State has an opening. I would very aggressively go after Luke Fickle, but I don't know that's how it ends up this year. You got their schedule, Jesse, by chance, the Wisconsin schedule? I didn't ask for it, but hopefully it's just in the system. I think they may be okay this year. They open it against Notre Dame in Lambeau. So I would guess they lose that game and then they're off everyone's radar for a couple of weeks. They play Western Illinois and Eastern Michigan and then the next time you see them would be at Penn State, week four. Now, I'm going to tell you right now, Jesse's people have penciled that in as a W. And the only W you should be penciling in is the Wisconsin logo because there's nothing given about that day. You need to be careful. You need to be careful. All I'm saying is they do not play Ohio State. They do not play Michigan. I'm having to scan it in real time. They do not play Indiana, they do not play Oregon. Check me on that. But I think that's accurate. It's a far cry from this time last year when we did the strength of schedule rankings, which Rhett Lashley is a huge fan of, preseason strength of schedule rankings. And Wisconsin was like a runaway number one without a close number two in the Big Ten. Things have changed, I think. I think Luke Fickle is going to be okay. A lot of people disagree with me on that also. The first year head coaches getting ready to open these fall camps. Lane Kiffin, of course, at lsu. Kyle Whittingham is the head coach at Michigan now, which I know is old news, but it's kind of something you have to remind yourself of every now and then because of everything that's happened up there. Matt Campbell, of course, at Penn State. James Franklin at Virginia Tech. Here's what I want to ask you. Jesse and everyone else, because Jesse can't speak for himself. Do any of those guys make the playoff this year? Take Lane out of it. Let's just pretend Lane's a different category. Are we going to have first year head coaches or head coach, singular or plural here in the playoff? I think we're going to. I just don't know who. And we're taking Lane out of it again, because that's a different category. Like Morgan Scally at Utah, he technically is a first year head coach, even though he's been there for a long time. I mean, what if Summerall just. It all came together for him? What if he made the playoffs? What if Billy Napier at JMU making the playoffs while Florida doesn't would be a poison pill for a lot of people in Gainesville. So, yeah, fall camp's opening. It's a beautiful time of year. I'm extremely excited. And then I pull this up, this story. In case you can't tell, I've moved on. This NCAA suspension of Aaron Carter, I wanted to wait a couple of days on because this is a pretty family friendly show and I don't want to blow up in front of the kiddos. And so Sammy hit us. And I'm going to answer this question tonight. He said, how much of a joke is the NCAA for suspending Arian Carter for a plane ticket? Don't they have better things to be working on? Great question. No, they don't. There's no other rule that they have on the books that they can actively enforce. So this is kind of what it's come down to. They have to lick the old index finger and flip past the first 19 chapters of the NCAA bylaws, and they get down to something they think maybe they won't get taken to court over. And this kid let an agent pay $400 for a plane ticket. Put him in prison. Get him out of here. Put him in prison. So what happened here? For those of you who haven't been following this story and think that this is a joke? It is, but it isn't. Arian Carter, really good player for Tennessee. He tested the NFL waters, and what happened was he had an agent, because everyone does now. And that agent purchased him a $427 plane ticket. We don't know if it was round trip or not. And then he decided not to go to the NFL, and he paid back the $427 to the agent. Case closed. Except that it's not because the NCAA got wind of this. And they were like, finally something for us to do. And they came down hard on Arian Carter and they suspended him. Three games, actually. And Tennessee appealed the ruling, and I think the appeal was something like, you can't be serious. And the NCAA said, okay, fine, two game suspension. And apparently that's where we are right now. And here's what's wild. What's wild. And again, I'm about to speak in pure hypotheticals, because there's no way that the purely hypothetical scenario that I'm about to paint would ever actually happen. But if Arian Carter's agent would have just gone and charged Tennessee a $40,000 consultation fee and then handed a lot of that money to Arian Carter, we'd be fine. Again, not that that ever happens in the real world. Strictly hypothetical, but. No, no, no. Instead, he bought the kid a 400. Let's round up to 500. Why not? Bought a $500 plane ticket. Prison. Prison or suspension, whatever comes first. So Josh Hyple spoke on this today. And I said, this is a family friendly show. But there is going to be some language mixed into this sound bite and I did not have Bradley and crew edit it for content because it's just too accurate. So they asked Josh Hyple at his first press conference of fall camp today. What's the latest here? How do we feel about the Arian Carter suspension? And here's just a bunch of facts from Josh Hyper. The ruling that came out from the ncaa, the two game suspension I truly believe is bullshit. You look at the landscape of college
[77:14]
Brandon Walker
football,
[77:16]
Jesse
the rules from Nil, everything, I think the ruling is completely outdated. Oh, but it's a rule, Josh. Don't you know it's a rule? Even if you don't like the rule, we got to enforce the rules. Hey, did you know that it's illegal to coast down a hill in the state of Tennessee? Did you know that it's illegal to shine shoes after 1pm on Sunday in New York State? Be careful. Did you know that, Jesse? I didn't either. You know why? Because there are some laws that we collectively as a society have understood are laughable and we don't enforce them. The NCAA is not familiar with this concept whatsoever. And so they're still enforcing 1997 logic based ruling in 2026. Do you understand there are teams paying over $40 million to their roster this year? Legally you can't do anything about it. And Aron Carter said, maybe I want to go be a professional athlete. $427 plane ticket. Oh, actually you weren't supposed to give me that. Let me pay it back suspension. Here's why I can't be a head coach. And this is really the only reason I'm not a college football head coach. I'd play him anyway. That's why I can't be a head coach. Because if I'm Josh Hyple, I don't really care what my legal team tells me. I don't care what my ad tells me. Truthfully, Danny White would probably be on board with me doing this. I'm like, arian, you're in week one. Just see what happens. Because clearly when you step to the podium and you talk that way about the governing body of the sport, you don't have any respect for them. No one has any respect for them. In fact, I know Tennessee is going to be playing at home week one. Tennessee could play on the road. Tennessee could probably play in Tuscaloosa. I think it was. Oh, man. Who was was Andy Staples, I believe. But I can't remember which show, but they floated a scenario the other day. They were saying if you were to take this to trial in a Gainesville courthouse or a Tuscaloosa courthouse, Tennessee would probably even win there because that's how egregious this is. So it couldn't be me. You want to know why Josh Hypo gets paid a lot of money? It's not even because he can dial up game plans so well. It's because he has to just like, grit his teeth and deal with this nonsense. And yet Tennessee is still going to be probably pretty good this year. But if you don't believe that, you can go over to FanDuel right now and prove me wrong. FanDuel, the exclusive odds provider of our show, several games are up over there. Now, like some of you love to go old school. You just love to bet the games. Others of you say, no, I think I want to go bet no on Texas Tech making the playoffs or yes on Oklahoma State making the playoffs. Look, I don't care because wins are wins. So value is value. You go find it wherever you can. But over at FanDuel right now, there's a robust college football market and beyond. I'm just, I'm a college football guy, so that's what I'm looking at. And not that fanduel has anything to do with this, per se. Actually, they do. Ramen Noodle Express is about to chug its way around the bend. Ramen Noodle Express is on its way back. We have fed so many families with the Ramen Noodle Express and I know some of you are new around here and you have no idea what I'm talking about. You will. You will in time. And there is a new Ramen Noodle Express T shirt that is coming to the patestatematerial.com store. That is my favorite design of any design we've ever generated around here. And it's so simple, so good. I may wear it on air. And I've never worn a design T shirt in my life on air. Sign up for FanDuel@FanDuel.com CFB promotion must be 21+ and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in Washington D.C. first online real money wager only $10. First deposit required. Bonus issued as non withdrawable bonus bet that expires seven days after receipt. Do you have a gambling problem? If so, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanduel.com rg call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE NY or text hop Eny in New York. All right, lastly, bowl prediction season rolls on around here. I made my predictions earlier. It's time for you to make your predictions and if any of these rank 9.5 or Boulder on the boldness scale and it hits, you win a chalice of supremacy. We gave away three of them last year, which means they were chalai instead of chalices. Let's see what we have tonight. From Nashville, Tennessee. Three words. Lsu. Actually it's four words because we don't say natty because I think it's disrespectful. LSU wins the national championship. This is from tweeting at Elon until he gives me 1 million legal name. So this is a 9.5, but it's not insane to think LSU could win the national title. Yes, there is a lot that has to come together for them, but you know my philosophy on this. If you're predicting a single team to win the national title from this far out, it's like trying to sink a half court shot. The rim is the same size as if you were shooting a layup. The ball's the same size, but just the percentage has dropped significantly. Big basketball guy. So if they get in the playoff, then obviously it's a game changer. Well, for two reasons. Number one, because you're in the playoff, which you have to be to win the national title. But number two, if they're there, that means it all worked. So like, if you tell me LSU is going to get in the playoff, that's kind of like Miami making it last year. Once Miami made it in, anything's possible. But they've got to make it. And I know by SEC standards this is a workable schedule, but it's still a hard schedule. So give me a nine and a half on them winning the whole thing because even if they make the playoff, they're going to have to play two or three of the best in the country. And that's just tough. Not impossible, but tough. Next up, Jared from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Penn State wins all of its games en route to Matt Campbell's first playoff appearance so close a couple of years ago. This is a 9.5. Remember, Penn State is not its schedule. Penn State is a team who plays its schedule and their over under win totals. Nine and a half right now. But we're calling for him to go 12 and oh, I believe in Matt Campbell implicitly. Some say I got him hired, not me, but some. But do they win everything? They should. So let's take a look at their schedule. Do they win all the games they should? You know the Marshals and Temples and Buffalo. This is a. This a man. I forgot. I haven't looked at their schedule in a while. This is Indiana esque. This is pretty rough but that's okay. Goes to the Big Ten. Man. No one gets to take shots at the Big Ten right now. It's so comforting having that patch on your chest. Anyway, eventually they will be less than a five touchdown favorite when Wisconsin comes to town. Northwestern. These are games they're supposed to win though. Minnesota and Rutgers later in the year at Maryland. So Purdue, if we are to assume they win all the games they're supposed to, that gets them to about nine and oh, and then we got USC at Michigan and at Washington. Those are the three games that are still in a state of balance here. And I just got a tough time seeing this. I also have a tough time assuming that the schedule is going to be as big a cakewalk outside of those three as other people are suggesting just cause that's not how the sport works. So that's a 9 and a half 12 and O. Penn State though would be very entertaining because that means they're going to the Big Ten title game and who knows what happens there. But they're in the playoff either way if they, if they make it that far. Next up, we have some controversy out of Lynchburg Virginia in the acc. SMU wins their first ACC championship before Miami. I don't like it. I love it. I'm not picking it but I love the. I love the spirit of this prediction. It's a 9.25, Jesse. You thought I should go higher, right? You didn't think I should go higher. You think this is accurate at 9.25. So you don't think it's. You think it's bold, but it's not insane. It's because you doubt Miami's ability to ever win a conference title. They haven't. Haven't won it yet. Cursed. Did you say that? I didn't say that. Cursed. Wow. Miami is the overwhelming odds on favorite to win this league right now. But you know what? That doesn't mean much. I think they're going to win the league but that doesn't mean much either. In a one off scenario. Kevin Jennings gets hot. He beat Miami last year. Mind you, these teams played last year. We were there, we were on the field there in Dallas and it was, it was like a rainy game early. Then it was complete blue skies, second half. We talked to George Bush that day. Senior. So it was an eventful day there in Dallas. Look, here's what I want to point out. This is a big time schedule alert, red flag, double warning situation. Look at SMU schedule right now. It's on your screen. And if you're listening on podcast, this can't happen. How do you let this happen? SMU plays at Notre Dame November 21st. They then play at Stanford November 28th, back to back road games to end the year. And if they're in the conference title game, that means it's a third straight road game because they have to play it in Charlotte. So think about being in Dallas. You fly to South Bend and back, you fly to Palo Alto, California and back and then you fly to Charlotte and back. This could have happened to Miami last year. The ACC schedule makers had Miami playing back to back road games to end the year last year. But Miami just said, okay, a little work around here, let's just not make the conference title game and still play for a national title. But this, this prediction says SMU wins the accident. So on top of probably playing Miami, they're going to have to play Miami and beat them. Having been on the road three times in three weeks, that's hard. I changed my mind, Jesse. It's a 9.5. I'm going to bump it up to a 9 point. Schedule dynamics, I'm going to bump it up to a 9.5. And lastly, this will raise some eyebrows. Taco cat from Westchester, Pennsylvania. Indiana will 100% not make the playoffs this year. There's not a lot of wiggle room in 100%. I think this is a 9.25 because here's really what it takes. Indiana has a dog water out of conference schedule. So if they lose two conference games, throw their schedule up. Bradley, whoever punches that thing in there, let's just walk through this for a second. Let's say Indiana goes 10 and 2 because they're not going to be bad. But let's say they go 10 and 2. Their losses, let's just say are Ohio State, USC or like Ohio State at Michigan. But my point is, let's say the teams they beat like USC and Washington, let's say those end up not being good teams. This year, so there's not really signature wins to hang their hat on. And they get docked for playing North Texas, some dude named Howard in Western Kentucky and out of conference play. And it's like Vandy last year Vandy was 10 and 2, but it was just a log jam of teams and they get left out now. It's really tough to envision this, I know, because you've got the I don't believe in defending national champ. You got last year's national champ being left out if they're on the bubble. But that is kind of the way this could go. I still think it's unlikely, so I'm going to make this a nine and a quarter. But if they do get left out, that's how I think that would happen. Great show tonight. In case you can't tell, we are back to three shows per week and that will last until January. So we're locked in. Do me a quick favor, check and see if you're subscribed to the channel. If you are, thank you. If you think you are and or if you're not, just look and subscribe. Because it's free, it doesn't cost anything, it doesn't sign you up for anything. It just helps us. And so we always get a big influx of new audience this time of year. So we just kind of want to keep the show the same as it's always been and we want to keep that indefinitely. So subscribing to the channel helps us out. Appreciate you guys so much. We'll be back here Thursday night. Until then, for director Bradley producer Jesse, I'm Josh Pate. Have a great rest of your evening and God bless. Sign up for FanDuel@FanDuel.com CFB promotion must be 21+ and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in Washington, D.C. first online real money wager only. $10. First deposit required. Bonus issued as non withdrawable bonus bet that expires seven days after receipt. Do you have a gambling problem? If so, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanduel.com RG call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE NY or text hop Eny in New York. This episode is brought to you by Bobcat they started the compact equipment industry through grit, determination and a whole lot of think we can't do that. Watch us. They set standards, broke records, empowered people to build bigger and higher, to dig deeper, to make the impossible possible, impossible. We've all been there with doubters telling us what we can't do. Who cares what they think? We don't need their permission or forgiveness. We just get things done. So go ahead and doubt me, judge me, challenge me. But when the time comes, watch me. Bobcat if you're alignment in charge of keeping the lights on, Granger understands that you go to great lengths sometimes heights, to ensure the power is always flowing. Which is why you can count on Grainger for professional grade products and next day delivery. So you have everything you need to get the job done. Call 1-800-GRAINGER clickgrainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. Across America, money is being abandoned. By taking a few seconds to check Lyft before your next ride, you can give money a better home inside your wallet. Save the money. Check Lyft.
[93:01]
Josh Pate
Some so called SUVs feel more like toys.
[93:05]
Jesse
You need a real vehicle that'll handle real life. A real SUV like the all new 2027 Kia Seltos with its best in class interior room. It'll make the others feel like toys.
[93:15]
Josh Pate
Check out the new 2027 Kia Seltos X line.
[93:17]
Jesse
It's real world ready Kia Movement that inspires limited inventory available comparison based on publicly available data regarding Cargo Room in 2026 entry All Wheel Drive CUVs as of May 2026 entry All Wheel drive CUV class as defined by Kia Segmentation
[93:31]
Josh Pate
this is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.

Summary9 min read

Josh Pate's College Football Show

Episode: CFP & Conference Title Picks + Brandon Walker Interview Reaction
Date: August 5, 2026
Host: Josh Pate

Episode Overview

Josh Pate broadcasts live from downtown Nashville, delivering his early predictions for the 2026 college football season. The show begins with his conference championship picks (ACC, Big 12, SEC, Big Ten), CFP projections, and a speculative national champion. Josh reacts to the newly released Coaches Poll, discusses key transfer portal moves, quarterback battles, and the NCAA’s controversial suspension decisions. A major highlight is his candid reaction and behind-the-scenes stories from his first-time interview with Brandon Walker on the newly relaunched Brandon Walker College Football Show.

Main Themes & Sections

1. Opening Thoughts and Approach to Predictions

Timestamp: 02:22

Josh shares details from a whirlwind day, rubbing shoulders with college football icons like Mack Brown and “the extremes of the human condition” in his debut with Brandon Walker.
Laments how predictions in early August are always fraught—“take this with an entire factory of salt”—but commits to making picks anyway, writing them in “dark pencil…erasable.”

Quote:

“I don’t like predictions, frankly, because they set me up for failure... So take this with an entire factory of salt.”
—Josh Pate (04:14)

2. Conference Championship Picks

Timestamp: 06:00

ACC

Predicts Miami will finally win the ACC, with SMU as their championship opponent.
Notes both SMU and Louisville have the same betting odds, but leans “ever so slightly” towards SMU facing Miami in the title game.

Big 12

Sees a Texas Tech vs BYU (Brigham Young) rematch, with BYU emerging as champion.
Comments on BYU being motivated after losing to Texas Tech twice last season.
Playfully references rumors of being “anti BYU,” quipping:

“I watched American Primeval... it put the fear of God in me, at least when it comes to Brigham Young. The dude ran a different way back then.”

SEC

Picks Georgia over Texas, sticking with the “don’t overthink it, it’s Georgia’s league” approach.
Notes Alabama moving back up to third in odds, with LSU and Ole Miss tied just behind.

Big Ten

Ohio State is the favorite; Oregon is surging among picks.
Predicts an Ohio State–Indiana rematch in the title game, this time giving the Buckeyes the win but notes it’s “tentative.”
Points out that Indiana, after “peaking” last year, is still a top team but not favored.

Conference Recap:

“Miami wins the ACC. Brigham Young wins the Big 12. Ohio State wins the Big Ten. Georgia wins the SEC. No big shock there—that’s three favorites. And then Brigham Young’s No. 2 on the odds board in the Big 12.”
—Josh Pate (24:02)

3. CFP Predictions & Bracketology

Timestamp: 25:10

Lays out a hypothetical CFP seeding:
- #1 Notre Dame (undefeated)
- #2 Ohio State (Big Ten champ)
- #3 Miami (ACC champ, only loss to #1 Notre Dame)
- #4 Georgia (SEC champ, possibly with 2 losses)
- 5–12: Indiana, Texas, BYU (Big 12), Oregon, Oklahoma, LSU, USC, Boise State (G5 rep)
Discusses wild potential matchups (e.g., LSU at BYU in Provo, Utah—“the greatest clash of cultures in the history of this country”).
Predicts early-round winners:
- Oregon over Oklahoma
- Indiana routs Boise
- LSU beats BYU (but “leave a part of their soul there”)
- Texas over USC
Second Round Matchups:
- Notre Dame vs Oregon (leans ND)
- Indiana vs Georgia (takes Indiana, references their playoff “rested” success)
- Ohio State over LSU (“just an organization thing”)
- Texas over Miami (calls it “51/49” coin flip)

Final Four: Notre Dame vs Indiana; Ohio State vs Texas

Predicts Notre Dame beats Indiana, and Texas beats Ohio State.
Championship: Notre Dame edges Texas.

Quote:

“Notre Dame wins the national championship in August with that schedule, Jesse, not battle tested at all. It’s almost like the schedule didn’t matter once the playoffs started.”
—Josh Pate (38:12)

Memorable Moment:
Comically laments that as the season progresses, he’s likely to overthink and “mess it up” by listening too much to staff and fall practice rumors:

“Nightmare scenario is this is a perfect bracket and I mess it up in late August because I see some things, go into some practices, I get influenced by corrupt members of the staff…”
—Josh Pate

4. Coaches Poll Reaction

Timestamp: 39:00

Newly released preseason Coaches Poll Top 5:
1. Ohio State
2. Oregon
3. Georgia
4. Texas
5. Notre Dame
6. Indiana
Expresses disbelief that Notre Dame is ranked only No. 5 despite being top-tier, suspects “schedule bias” and “residual” from ND opting out of their bowl.
Highlights the oddity of Clemson ranked #23:

“Drugs. Dabo himself had to have looked at this when it came out and said who’s really 23rd though?”
—Josh Pate (57:00)

Discusses SEC and Big Ten dominance in the rankings and the glut of “Tier 2” SEC teams.
Analyzes implications for playoff selection and possible undervalued teams (mentions SMU, Tennessee, and others).

5. Brandon Walker Interview Reaction

Timestamp: 38:15

Details his maiden appearance on The Brandon Walker College Football Show at Barstool HQ.
Recounts a comical arrival story where Ben Mintz, with a leg injury, “skipped” down the hallway in excitement to see Josh (41:03).
Explains his “hostilely cordial” relationship with Walker and how their on-air chemistry surprised him:

“He lives in a fantasy world. He has a hot air balloon with absolutely no sandbags.”

Discusses how he intentionally “nudged” Walker into wild predictions—highlighted by Walker confidently predicting Mississippi State would go “8–4 minimum” (44:10, Walker: “We got Oklahoma and Alabama coming in back to back. We're getting one of them.”).
Announces part two: Brandon Walker will visit Josh’s own studio in August for a “home and home.”

6. Rivalries & The Return of USC–Notre Dame

Timestamp: 47:27

Celebrates USC–Notre Dame rivalry’s return (starting 2030), considers it a “pillar” above even the playoff in college football tradition.
Rails against “playoff brain rot”—the idea that teams should drop traditional rivals to improve playoff odds.

Quote:

“Rivalries should be more secure than Fort Knox…Water is wet. Notre Dame and USC play every year, and if you don’t like it, that’s a you problem.”
—Josh Pate

7. Transfer Portal & Impact Players

Timestamp: 54:00

Reviews top portal moves:
- LSU: Sam Levitt (QB), Jordan Seaton (OT), big upgrades to fix rushing game.
- Miami: Focuses on how Damon Wilson and Darian Mensah could change D and QB play.
- Texas: Cam Coleman, Ryan Wingo, Smothers and others; notes Rasheed Biles at LB as a “mentality” changer.
- Indiana: Josh Hoover at QB, Nick Marsh at WR among a high-impact but “small class” transfer haul.
- Oklahoma State: Drew Mestemaker (QB), Caleb Hawkins (RB) discussed as possible breakout duo.
Names several other sleepers and breakout candidates (Justice Haynes at Georgia Tech, Eric Singleton at Florida, Rocco Becht at Iowa State).

8. Quarterback Battles to Watch

Timestamp: 63:55

Declares 2026's crop as “unlike anything I remember in my lifetime,” with immense depth and uncertainty.
Goes through major position battles:
- Alabama: Keelan Russell vs Austin Mack (expects Russell will win job, but could be a strategic mid-season switch)
- Tennessee: George McIntyre (favorite) vs Faison Brandon (expects strong challenge)
- Clemson: Chris Vezina vs Tate Reynolds; surprised it’s not settled, says new OC complicates matters; notes Week 1 opener at LSU is “no place to figure things out.”

9. Coaches Hot Seat & First-Year Head Coaches

Timestamp: 67:30

Discusses most at-risk coaches: Mike Norvell (FSU), Dave Aranda (Baylor), Bill Belichick (North Carolina), Mike Locksley (Maryland), Luke Fickell (Wisconsin).
Suggests Fickell could have a bounce-back year due to a much rosier schedule.
Surveys first-year head coaches:
- Lane Kiffin (LSU)
- Kyle Whittingham (Michigan)
- Matt Campbell (Penn State)
- James Franklin (Virginia Tech)
- Asks whether any (other than Lane) will make the playoff.

10. NCAA Suspension Controversy: Arian Carter

Timestamp: 75:00

Recaps NCAA suspending Tennessee’s Arian Carter for accepting a $427 plane ticket from an agent while testing the NFL waters, which he repaid after returning to school. Initially a 3-game, then 2-game suspension.
Josh rails against the decision, mocking NCAA “logic” for clinging to “1997” rules in a world where players now earn $40+ million.
Plays a soundbite from Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel, who says:

“The ruling that came out from the NCAA... I truly believe is bullshit.”
“The rules from NIL, everything—I think the ruling is completely outdated.”
—Josh Heupel, via Josh Pate (77:13)

11. Listener Mailbag & Bold Predictions (Chalice of Supremacy)

Timestamp: 79:00

Reads “Bold Prediction” submissions—rates them for boldness:
- LSU wins national title: 9.5/10
- Penn State goes undefeated: 9.5/10, calls schedule “Indiana-esque” but doubts a 12-0 record
- SMU wins ACC before Miami: Loves the “spirit,” bumps it up for toughness of SMU’s travel situation to 9.5/10
- Indiana 100% NOT making the playoff: 9.25/10—says it would require a weird logjam and no signature wins.

Notable Quotes & Moments

On picking Georgia over Texas—again:

“Why overthink the room? This is Georgia’s league… I’ve fallen victim to this at least once or twice. Not three times, though. And it’s always Georgia.” (18:11)

On the BYU-LSU playoff scenario:

“LSU playing a playoff game in Provo, Utah in December. It means the greatest clash of cultures in the history of this country.” (28:50)

About Brandon Walker’s optimism:

“He lives in a fantasy world… when you finally get face to face with that kind of person, you get them on tilt really quickly.” (43:00)

Josh on classic rivalries:

“If you sign up to be part of Notre Dame, you’re signing up to play USC every year… case closed.” (47:35)

On the NCAA’s suspension penalty for Arian Carter:

“The ruling… I truly believe is bullshit.” (77:13, quoting Josh Heupel)

Quick Reference: Key Timestamps

Conference picks start: 06:00
Playoff scenarios/bracket: 25:10
Coaches Poll reaction: 39:00
Brandon Walker interview story: 38:15 (detailed at 43:50)
Return of USC–ND rivalry: 47:27
Transfer portal breakdown: 54:00
Quarterback battles: 63:55
Coaches hot seat: 67:30
Arian Carter/NCAA rant: 75:00
Mailbag predictions / Chalice of Supremacy: 79:00

Summary

This episode is a comprehensive, energetic look at the coming college football season. Josh Pate lays out his early conference and playoff predictions (with plenty of caveats), humorously breaks down the quirks and flaws of preseason polls, explores how portal movement and QB competitions might upend expectations, and celebrates the sport’s traditions (while taking the NCAA and playoff-obsessed ADs to task). The reaction to Brandon Walker—part serious, part comedy—shows both the camaraderie and chaos at the heart of college football media. For fans wanting fast, informed, and unfiltered analysis—delivered with Josh’s trademark humility and wit—this episode is a must-listen.

Loading summary

Transcript65 lines

[00:00]
Josh Pate
This is an iHeart podcast.
[00:02]
Jesse
Guaranteed Human Amazon Health AI presents painful thoughts.
[00:09]
Josh Pate
I. I can't stop scratching my downtown. Mm, yeah, but I'm not itching to go downtown and tell a receptionist I'm here to talk about my downtown. Some things you'd rather type than say out loud.
[00:24]
Jesse
There's no question too embarrassing for Amazon Health AI.
[00:28]
Brandon Walker
Chat your symptoms and get virtual care. 24. 7 Healthcare just got less painful.
[00:34]
Jesse
Do you want to find a stress free way to buy your next car? Start at CarMax and shop your way. If you want to browse with confidence, get pre qualified online with no impact on your credit score, and shop cars within your budget. From luxury cars to family rides, CarMax has options for almost every price range, including more than 25,000 cars priced under $25,000.
[00:58]
Josh Pate
So.
[00:59]
Jesse
So, hey, want to get started? Just head to CarMax.com for details and get pre qualified today. Want to drive CarMax? Optimal fibers in the house.
[01:10]
Josh Pate
Y' all know the number 877-393-4448 Optimum Fibers so fast, so fine Got another provider leaving behind.
[01:21]
Jesse
Come on Everybody, let's get online.
[01:23]
Josh Pate
30amonth gonna blow your mind 5o years
[01:26]
Brandon Walker
don't hesitate lock it in now before
[01:29]
Josh Pate
it's too 739-34448 Optimum.com for details. Wait, I came in for two things.
[01:40]
Jesse
How is this $47?
[01:42]
Josh Pate
All right, we're gonna need a plan here. Just start simple with bank of America Advantage Safe Balance Banking. No overdraft item fees, no monthly maintenance fee if you're under 25. Plus as a new checking customer, you can earn $100 when you open an account and make qualifying zelle or debit transactions.
[01:57]
Jesse
Oh, that's actually really simple.
[01:59]
Josh Pate
Safe Balance Banking. One less thing to figure out. Learn more@bofa.com earn 100 terms and conditions apply. Bank of America and a member fdic.
[02:22]
Jesse
You know what I did yesterday, Jesse? In the span of 12 hours, in the span of eight hours, I appeared publicly with Mack Brown, college football legend, college football hall of Famer, a saint of an individual, former national champion. And I appeared with Brandon Walker. The extremes of the human condition, never more pronounced than my life. What I experienced yesterday. And I'm going to talk about the latter of which a lot later in the show. We're jam packed. We're high atop a glowing downtown Nashville, Tennessee. Beautiful sunset underway outside. And look, the reason I got to push all that stuff to later in the show is it's college football playoff prediction time. It's conference championship Prediction time. Last year I was looking at the calendar. We waited too long. Frankly. I think I got influenced by some things that I heard in August and that doesn't matter. And so I want to get it out of the way early. And we're going to do it tonight. We're going to do it to lead the show off. Also, the rankings came out today from the coaches. And the coaches are telling you some things without telling you some things well, or either their sids who fill the ballot out in their place are telling you some things. There is one of the more egregious teams placed in the top 25 that I ever remember in the modern era. And we all know how far that goes back. I've got a ton of fall camp stuff. Not like practice intel yet. Cause most camps are just opening up or haven't opened up yet. But I got my eye on a lot of things. We're finally about to put pads on and you know, start figuring out some of this depth chart stuff. All that plus I will give my own personal recount of my appearance last night, my debut appearance, my hosting duties, basically on the maiden voyage of the Brandon Walker College Football Show. The second edition, the first one failed. And so this is the second edition of the Brandon Walker College Football Show. They're watching us in Lakeland, Florida. They're watching us in Danville, California. St. Paul, Minnesota. Porter, Texas. Look, we're way over halfway to a million subscribers. Now. I don't know what's going to happen the day we get there, but we got a little ways to go. And I just want to crank up the community service early. We do a lot of community service on our end. The only service we ask for in return for this free college football show, which we do multiple times per week, is please subscribe to the channel and then humbly but forcefully steal the phone of five of your friends and family and close relatives and have them do the same thing with that. We are off. This is a really important show because it's time to pick some winners. It's time to make some predictions. It's time to nail myself down. And it's August, August 4th. And you know what that means, Jesse? I don't like predictions, frankly, because they set me up for failure. Think D.J. lagway, number one quarterback in SEC circa 2025. This never works out well for me. I went 05, maybe 06 picking against Indiana last year. So take this with an entire factory of salt. And so what I'm thinking about doing is, you know, a Little strategy called hedging. It is early August, and I am going to make predictions tonight. And I'm not writing them in pencil. I'm writing them in dark pencil. But still erasable, because if I hear some stuff in fall camp, I want to be able to right before the season starts. So I'm going to give you my conference winners, I'm going to give you my playoff predictions. I'm going to give you my national champion right here in front of God and Bradley and everyone. But I just want to leave myself a small crack in the exit door over here. With that in mind, let's talk conferences. First, and in no particular order, the ACC won the draft. And so the ACC is going to go first tonight. Look, there's no reason to break these games down because number one, they may not happen. But number two, even if they do, they're like four months, five months away. But congratulations to Mario Cristobal in Miami. They're going to finally do something that many said would happen a lot, but in actuality has never happened, and that is Miami winning the ACC. Now, to quickly remind you the odds over FanDuel. Right now, Miami is the overwhelming favorite to win the league. What's very interesting is who's. Who's theoretically number two in this conference. Well, the answer is two teams, SMU and Louisville, had the exact same odds to win the acc. Right now I slightly, ever so slightly lean SMU to face Miami in the ACC title game. Which probably means. Jesse, probably not. Definitely means that smu, who knows, went on the road and beat Louisville. They do play early in the season. While the rest of the free world has their eyes focused on Oxford, Mississippi. You know, SMU and Louisville play that week, too, I think on a Saturday, Jesse. We want to check that. Anyway. Give me Miami versus SMU in the ACC championship game and give me Miami over SMU. More on what that means for Miami and SMU in just a second. Next up, the Big 12, the Monster Energy, Big 12 drafted second, and I think we're going to have a rematch from what we had last year, at least in terms of the matchup itself. Texas Tech, even without Brendan Sorsby, is still the pretty overwhelming favorite to win this league. Then it's a little drop off in Brigham Young. Then it's a little drop off further in Utah. And there was a rumor that went around, not just the Big 12, but the whole country last year that I was anti Brigham Young. Some people made harsher accusations than that. Some people went down roads that we're not comfortable going down on this show on this campus, at this university. Anyway, I heard all of it and I also watched American Primeval, which is, it's a tough watch, but I think a necessary watch because it put the fear of God in me, at least when it comes to Brigham Young. The dude ran a different way back then. And so I think maybe I want to lean Brigham Young slightly right now to win this league over Texas Tech. Joy Maguire enjoys this. He'll enjoy it more than any Brigham Young fan enjoys this. So I'm doing favors for everyone here. But I think that when you go through what they went through last year, which is they lost to one team twice. I was on hand the first time when they played in Lubbock and then they got another shot against them and Texas Tech was just a better team. And then you go home to pro for the entire off season and you just think about it and you got all your players back. And then here comes Jesse's private jet from Penn State in and they're like, Kalani Sitaki, we want to hire you. And he says no. And Jesse has to go home empty handed only to cash in with Matt Campbell. So all's well that ends well there. And it's just, you got another shot. That group of guys has another shot. I like Brigham Young and so I'm going to slightly lean them right now to win the Big 12. Next up, the Southeastern Conference still going to field 16 teams this year and they're going to give it the good old college try. Right now, the odds in this league, Georgia the favorite, Texas behind them. I actually didn't know Alabama had moved up to third. Jesse, is that new? Is it? Was that odds movement? Okay, well, it's Bama third, LSU fourth. LSU and Ole Miss are tied. Lsu, Ole Miss and OU tied for fourth. Okay, again, I'm going to talk about this more later when we talk about the rankings in the show, but how do I think this conference is going to work itself out? Well, in early August, before we really got an intel anywhere, why overthink the room? This is Georgia's league. This has been Georgia's league. And even though Texas has had multiple shots at him, it's remained Georgia's league. And every single time there's this giant dust cloud during the week, folks hyping themselves up. I've fallen victim to this at least once or twice. I've picked Texas over Georgia. Not three times, though. And it's always Georgia. So why overthink the room? Give me Georgia against Texas and Give me Georgia over Texas. And you know what? If I hear some hot rumor, if I think Rasheed Biles is going to single handedly upend this entire dynamic, if I think Cam Coleman is going to upend this entire dynamic, Hollywood smothers about to run for 1500 including 148 and three scores against Georgia. And up in this dynamic, I'll change my pick. But I don't know that yet. Nor do you. So let's, let's just yield the floor to Kirby Smart until we have reason to think otherwise. And then in the Big Ten, or as they're calling it, America's new College Football Conference, patent pending, Ohio State's the favorite to win this league. Oregon's a hot team. Jesse, you see how many people are picking Oregon to win this thing. And then Indiana just ho hum coaches don't even have them top five. It's just a good for you guys. But it's, it's you peaked last year. Great story. But now order is restored. Okay. USC's fourth, Michigan fifth, Penn State sixth. And there's a big drop off by the way after the top three that fits right in line with perception. We'll see what reality is. So here's where my head's at right now. I think Ohio State's going to be really good. So does everyone else. I think Indiana is going to be really good and so does most everyone else. I think we're going to have a log jam here of one loss teams. That's kind of how I would envision the Big Ten playing out right now. And I think it'd be those three teams at the top there and the way that I think the tiebreakers would work and who I think it would send to Indianapolis right now is Ohio State and Indiana, which is a rematch of last year. Give me a different winner in that one. This is tentative. So this does not count as me picking against Indiana. Also, if I send you to the conference title game, am I really picking against you? I don't think so. But reasonable minds can disagree there. Ohio State over Indiana as of early August is where I'm leaning in the Big Ten. So our recap in the conference picture, our recap is Notre Dame was the best independent. I should note that. Congrats to the Irish. Miami wins the accurate. Brigham Young WINS the Big 12. Ohio State wins the Big Ten. Georgia wins the SEC. There's no big shock there. That's three favorites. And then Brigham Young's the number two on the odds board in the Big 12 courtesy of FanDuel now, it gets a little fun and it also gets a little interesting. And frankly, it gets a little tricky as we try and figure out how this seeding would look. So, as you may have heard, Notre Dame's not in a conference, so you have zero context clues as to how good they were by looking at that lineup. But I'll tell you how good they were. They went undefeated, so they're number one overall in the playoff rankings. I would think Ohio State would have to be number two as a result of them being the best team in the best conference. I would say Miami third. And I put Georgia fourth. And the reason Georgia would be fourth here is I'm just not sure even the SEC champion is making it through the SEC unscathed, maybe even two losses. But I'm thinking there's a greater likelihood that Georgia emerges kind of like they did last year, kind of beat up conference champ. But Miami, if their only loss is on the road at Notre Dame, and Notre Dame's your number one team, I just think that resume may be good enough where Miami just won a conference title, they look good in the process. I think they may lock down the number three spot. So Notre Dame, Ohio State, Miami, Georgia is your one through four. This is where I got to figure it out. So Indiana, if they lose the Big Ten championship game, they're not dropping far. And I think maybe they only drop behind Georgia as a result of Georgia being a conference champ. So I've got Indiana 5. I've got Texas 6. So I think it's kind of a similar vibe to last year where your teams that were participants in the Big Ten and the SEC championship games, they don't drop much, if at all. And then we got to figure out what the committee does with Big 12 champion Brigham Young. And I also had to figure out if we could have two Big 12 teams. Now, I played with this scenario for a second. I thought to myself, self, what if Texas Tech goes undefeated regular season? What if Brigham Young's only loss is at home to Notre Dame and they go to the Big 12 title game and Brigham Young wins? At that point, do I think Texas Tech is going to go from being an undefeated top five team to all the way out of the rankings? I don't think they would. So to be very clear, if that's like one loss, Brigham Young against undefeated Texas Tech and Brigham Young wins it, I think you got two Big 12 teams in the playoff. I think maybe there's one more blemish for Texas Tech. Therefore, I think Brigham Young is your seven seed. I guess the better way to put that is the Big 12 champ is your seven seed. And in this case it's Brigham Young. And I think Texas Tech dropped out, which is kind of a wild scenario. But in this scenario, that's how it worked out. Give me Oregon at 8, Oklahoma at 9, LSU at 10, USC at 11. Certain staff members are shaking their head. You want to doubt Lincoln Riley? Good. You've been very successful over the last half decade, but that's about to come to an abrupt halt. Put that 11 seed in your pipe and smoke it. Jesse. Not in the building, though. And then 12th is Boise State. Look, we threw army and Navy around. Who else did we throw in? We threw utsa, we threw unlv, I tossed New Mexico in. There was some Billy Napier smoke at JMU for a little while. Still is. Fire's not out in there for the time being. Let's put Boise state in the G5 seat there. The obligatory G6. Excuse me, G6, 12 seat. I don't think. If you're listening on podcasts and you're a visual learner, I don't quite think you understand what just happened here, because it's time to look at the bracket. And I don't quite think people understand what it means if, for example, Brigham Young is the 7 seed and LSU is the 10 seed. I'll tell you what it means. It means LSU playing a playoff game in Provo, Utah in December. It means the greatest clash of cultures in the history of this country. I'm talking about Revolutionary War, up to and including everything that's ever happened in the history of this country. If people from Thibodeau, Louisiana, Storm, Provo, Utah, we've never seen anything like it. That is irresistible force, that is immovable object greater than any WrestleMania ever gave us. And that's not even to determine the outcome of the game. That's just who survives and kind of makes it to the game, so to speak. So we've got lsu, Brigham Young playing in round one. This would give us USC at Texas in round one. I've got Oklahoma going on the road to Oregon and then Indiana as a result of being the 5 seed, which again, in this brief history of the 12 team playoff era, that's been the spot you want to be in. They draw Boise. So how would this shake out? Firstly, up in Eugene. This is Dan Lanning's shot. Okay, Dan Lanning, I think he just had a really good year. He's the eight seed. Okay, so he's in the Playoff. And they've been bounced emphatically two years in a row. They've got to win that game. I think they do. So I think Oregon over Oklahoma is how I'd pick it right now. Again, I've got entire of August or the entirety of August changed my mind. Indiana would route Boise. LSU goes into Brigham Young, and I think they leave a part of their soul there, but I think they win the game because they just be better. You also got to understand and more on my thinking here in a second. If LSU's made the playoff, that means Lane got that group of players to come together, and that means they gelled, they coalesced, and they're probably clicking pretty good by this point. USC at Texas in round one's awesome. It's a uniform game. It's Lincoln Riley coming home. Although Lincoln Riley is a West Texas guy, so I don't think he would call Austin home. And I don't think they would welcome him home. And I don't think it matters because they're going to lose to Texas. So give me Texas over usc. But Lincoln Riley made the playoff, Jesse, so y' all can shut up. No hot seat. Lincoln Riley made the playoffs. That's what we needed from him. Playoff or bust. Well, playoff. So no bust. Again, if you're listening on podcast, there are some of us out here who fought against playoff expansion. I'm one of them. I also freely admit to you, I think the sport of college football has grown into 12 teams being perfect because the top of the sport got flattened like play. D'oh. And so as a result, look at the second round of this playoff. These are your matchups. If you're listening somewhere driving around in Waterloo, Iowa, this would be Oregon going to Notre Dame. This would be Georgia going to Indiana. LSU goes to Ohio State. Miami goes to Texas. Oh, no, they don't, do they? No, I'm messing with you. No, they don't. That's the way it should be. We should have two rounds of playoff games on camp. I plural of campus. But we don't. So we still get awesome matchups. They're just going to be in sterile NFL stadiums because that's how we do the playoff right now. But nevertheless, Oregon, Notre Dame, Georgia, Indiana, lsu, Ohio State and Miami Texas. I guess if you could hand pick the lineups, maybe you could make some tweaks here and there and improve it. But you can't improve that by much. Like, that's it. That's an insane second round there. So I'll take Notre Dame over Oregon, that's my one seed, and they're sitting there rested. They're ready to go. They've got last year still fresh on their mind. And what that would mean for Oregon, we can figure that out. That's well down the road. I think I'd go Indiana over Georgia. The what I'm thinking there is, if Indiana's in the playoff, they had the first round game and then they get Georgia. And this, this spot historically has not been good. Indiana is the only team that's figured out how to play rested in the playoffs. Georgia has suffered twice in two years in this role. So I think they make it a third year because in this scenario, that means Josh Hoover ended up being really good. And that means I've got Indiana, maybe the best coaching staff in the country, if not one of the top two, top three in the country. Georgia staff, not bad either. But if Indiana's humming by that point, you probably have an edge at quarterback, I would guess. Okay, LSU and Ohio State. I lean Ohio State, and that's just an organization thing. That's just. They've got a bunch of folks who have been there, done that, and are trying to do it again. That's Julian saying, second time around. I just think I'd lean them at the moment. And Miami and Texas, that's. That's really, really tough. But I'm going to lean Texas ever so slightly right now. I'm going to lean Texas. That's a, that's a 51, 49 coin flip. Virtually in my mind right now. Your final four is Notre Dame, Indiana on one side of the bracket, Ohio State, Texas on the other side of the bracket. What a time for the state of Indiana. Just what a moment. This is the biggest occurrence since the birth of Larry Bird, I would say, in the state of Indiana. I think Notre Dame wins this game right now in August. And on the other side, I think I would very so slightly lean Texas. I think that that combination of players, plus them getting on a roll in the postseason at its best, is a really, really tough out. And Notre Dame Texas is an unbelievable national championship game. Coin up in the air. It lands Notre Dame. Notre Dame won the national championship in August with that schedule, Jesse, not battle tested at all. Imagine a team with that kind of schedule winning it all. It's almost like the schedule didn't matter once the playoffs started. So, and I want to emphasize in early August, that is how I see this entire picture playing out. Now here's the nightmare scenario. The nightmare scenario is this is a perfect bracket And I mess it up in late August because I see some things go into some practices, I read some things on some message boards. I get influenced by corrupt members of the staff, and all of a sudden I got Penn State with a first round by somehow having won the Big Ten. I'm trying to guard against it, is what I'm saying. But none of us are perfect. None of us are perfect. And even when we are kids, coaches and officials can screw it up for you, famously. That's happened to me a lot. People don't know that I picked 100% winners last year in games that kids, coaches and officials did not screw up. So prayers up for us all. All right, let's move on. Coaches poll dropped today. I don't know if you heard this. Let me make sure this screen is right. There we go. So the coaches poll dropped today. Top 25. Some of it makes sense. Some of it is so bad. I thought that we were looking at typos. I thought it was. I thought we were getting punked. Dead serious. Now, not in the top five. But there is a team in the top 25 that defies all conventional wisdom. And I can only think it's wizardry at work. I'll talk to you about it in a second. So your top five, Ohio State's number one. That's pretty supreme. Respect the top five. For the record, I couldn't see. I don't think anyone's going to rank Georgia number one. I could see someone ranking any of the other top six number one. So Ohio State, Oregon, Georgia, Texas. Notre Dame is the top five. Indiana was six, Notre Dame at five. I'm not going to argue a coach's poll in August. I would just humbly love to know what's the explanation there, because I think Notre Dame belongs higher than five. So what's the explanation? Best I can tell, I think some coaches held it against them that they opted out of the bowl game. I think there's some of that residual. And that's fair, if that's the way you feel. I think some other coaches look and say, I don't like their schedule. Translation, I wish I had that schedule. And I think they just took it out on them, knowing it won't matter anyway. And so as best I can tell, that's why Notre Dame's ranked number five, Indiana's number six. I lived this life last year so you don't have to. Don't do this to him. Don't let Kurt Signetti get you in his crosshairs. He will ruin You. I was showing Jesse a film, a Johnny Depp film earlier today called Secret Window. Good movie. Jesse doesn't believe in movies and so he hasn't seen it. Read the book, Jesse. And there's a crazy guy who, as it turns out, is not real. Spoiler alert. 25 year old movie. And he looks at Johnny Depp at some point and he says, I will burn your life and everyone in it like a cane field and a high wind. The reason I remember the line is that's essentially what Kurt Signetti told me last year every time I picked against him. And you people, you people have the audacity to put this man sixth. When the teams that he went 30 against last year are ranked 1 2. Have we learned nothing? No, not we. I learned I won't have them outside the top five, but the coaches do. And you guys actually have to face him. That's the crazy part. I just get to sit here. Miami's at seven. Fair. Does that conclude Tier one? This is a growing point of debate in the college football ethosphere right now. Are there seven teams and then the end of tier one or could you make the argument for like an A and M or an Oklahoma or Ole Miss? My tier one stops at seven, but I don't know that there's a massive drop off. It's not like a touchdown differential on a neutral field. JP Poll coming soon, but the coaches have A and M at 8, Oklahoma 9, Ole Miss at 10, Bama 11. So you know, in any rankings in the preseason, there's going to be this kind of glob of Tier 2 SEC teams, those conditional teams. And I think they kind of got it right here. In fact, LSU is 13th. I'm going to skip over Texas Tech for a second. I'll come back to him. A and M, Oklahoma, ole Miss, Bama, LSU. That means seven of the top 13 in the coaches poll are SEC. The coaches are in the tank for the SEC. The coaches are drunk on SEC bias. Everybody is. These are like a bunch of if then teams. Basically. Texas has a lot that they have going for them. These other teams like Bama with the quarterback situation in the run game, ditto for LSU, A&M. All the talent they lost to the draft. Got a lot of churn in the offensive line. Oklahoma, same thing. Run game. How good is Mater this year? He comes back from injury, a lot of if. And any of those teams, if those ifs get answered in the affirmative, they could be fringe national championship contenders. I think that's fair. Texas Techs at 12, which begs the question, where would they be if they had Sourcebee? I was wondering if they have Source B, do the coaches rank them top 10? My guess would be around nine or 10. They're at 12 with Will Hammond. Okay, we move on. 14, 16, 17, 19 and 22 are big 10 teams. So it's kind of weird when you look at the Tier 2 of the SEC. Just below them begins the Tier 2 of the Big Ten. Now we don't know if this is going to be reality, but if I had to do my top 25 right now, I think it would feel somewhat similar. And that is, I think the top of the Big Ten is better than the top of the sec. Then I think the second level of the SEC is probably a little bit better than the second level of the Big Ten. The that's why answering that question is one of the most important storylines in college football this year. Because if that's wrong, if A and M and Oklahoma, Alabama, Ole Miss, lsu, some combination of those kind of crap out and Washington is a surprise team this year. Bryce Underwood just balls out of his mind at Michigan. USC really is a playoff caliber team. Penn State goes 10 and 2 or better. Well, that upended the whole sport because that means the top of the Big Ten and the second tier of the Big Ten were better. Or do we have a total inverse effect? Is the top of the SEC better? And then there's a huge gap and then the Big Ten's Tier 1 and Tier 2 kind of snuggles between the SECs 1 and 3. I don't know, but I would think it kind of works out this way where you've got USC in there, Michigan, Penn State, Washington, and then I was at 22. I think it's kind of fair so far. I don't have a big problem with all of this. And mixed in between there, you've got Brigham Young at 15, SMU's in there at 20. I think maybe, just maybe I'll go a little higher than that on smu. We'll see. We'll see how that works out. Tennessee's in there. Tennessee seeing some opinions on them. Seeing Tennessee start to have a little bit more spark, which is interesting. We'll see how that quarterback battle plays out. It is very much a quarterback battle right now. Jesse, is this a typo at 23? Because I see the Clemson tiger paw and certainly that can't be reality. Certainly you meant to put something else. Certainly this is just a graphical oversight. No, they're telling me that the coaches ranked Clemson 23rd. Drugs. Dabbo himself had to have looked at this when it came out and said who's really 23rd though? They're like, no sir, we're ranked based on what I've got to think the sit down Dabo did with us on the speaker series had to be watched by enough people that they just got roped in. I'm not saying Clemson may go 11 and one for all I know, but there is no basis for the most hardcore of Clemson fanatics on this planet to rank that team in the preseason. So much so that Clemson addict friend of the program on Twitter said, if we're being 100% honest with ourselves, like brutally honest, 76 team coming off of nine players getting drafted, we're only ranked to give LSU a ranked win and we won. The SEC media machine thinks they're slick. Now I want to remind you this is not the Associated Press Top 25. These are the coaches. So there's a growing conspiracy that the coaches are in the tank for the sec. I don't even know who all votes on this, but like just picture Bob Chesney if he's an AP voter saying what do I want to do here? I think I want to rank Clemson because four months later it's going to help LSU in the eyes of the committee to have had a ranked win in week one. Go Bruins. Is that really the conspiracy right now? If Clemson addict says it, who am I to push against it? I can't believe I can't square Clemson. It's hard for me to square him in the top 30. Number 23 is insane. Houston's 24, Missouri's 25. So the teams that aren't here, Louisville, Arizona, Illinois, Illinois. Again you're kind of I, I don't have a problem if you're projecting with your ranking. So like if Illinois had a good year last year but they lost a lot and you're going to bump them down. Okay, but what are you projecting with Clemson? Is my whole question. I don't want to get too up in arms about this because it is August 4th after all. But neither of the Arizona's are in there. Florida's not in there, Auburn's not in there. And you may be thinking to yourself, well those aren't good teams, they shouldn't be ranked. Okay, but you see who is is my point. Great job coaches. I got big news on this piece of paper that Jesse has freshly printed off so recently. It's still a little warm and he has put in my hand. Pacestatematerial.com is your one stop shop for all things wardrobe. Has been for a while. A mountain of new items are about to get dumped in there, by the way. Not that the old ones are bad. We've still got a ton of good stuff in there. The football is coming. Shirts are moving and moving in a big way. I'm just telling you. Alex has got some new stuff that is about to roll off the assembly line. However, that's not the big news, although it is big news. The big news is last year a lot of people, as it turns out in our audience are designers and they wanted to design shirts. We just didn't have time. It was the middle of the season and it was one of our projects. That's why Jesse took a break in July to get his hands around this sort of thing. So you wanted your shot and you got it. So we're about to launch our first ever merch design contest. And there are cash prizes involved here, so you really need to pay attention. As of midnight tonight, Tonight is Tuesday, August 4th. So if you're listening to the replay, Wednesday, it's already live. As of midnight tonight, patestatematerial.com the design contest will launch. We're going to run this thing for 14 days. That's how long we're going to take submissions. Then there's going to be a seven day period where the best ones are going to be available literally on the website. Your mom and dad can buy them. In fact, I would encourage your mom and dad to buy them because we're not going to choose the winners of the design contest. We're just going to kind of choose who makes the cut. And then the audience is going to choose based on their purchasing who wins this thing. And then there are cash prizes for 1, 2 and 3. These are not small numbers in these cash prizes. There's more on the graphic than there is on the paper. Oh, well, I thought we were. Jesse says we're actually giving out more money than is written on this piece of paper. And there's a lot of. This is my money. We're giving out a lot of money. I'm giving out a lot of money. That's fine, that's fine. It's just going to come out of someone's paycheck, but that's fine. So I would strongly encourage everyone who reached out last year and you know who you are, or if you didn't reach out last year and you just think you're really good at designing stuff, this could be pretty lucrative for you at the very least. And hopefully eventually for me one day. All right, let's move on. Amazon Health AI presents Painful Thoughts I
[35:48]
Josh Pate
I can't stop scratching my downtown. Yeah, but I'm not itching to go downtown and tell a receptionist I'm here to talk about my downtown. Some things you'd rather type than say out loud.
[36:02]
Jesse
There's no question too embarrassing for Amazon Health AI.
[36:05]
Brandon Walker
Chat your symptoms and get virtual care 24. 7 Healthcare just got less painful.
[36:12]
Josh Pate
Wait, I came in for two things. How is this $47? Alright, we're gonna need a plan here. Just start simple with bank of America Advantage Safe Balance Banking. No overdraft item fees, no monthly maintenance fee. If you're under 25 as a new checking customer, you can earn $100 when you open an account and and make qualifying Zeller debit transactions. Oh, that's actually really simple Safe Balance Banking. One less thing to figure out. Learn more@bofa.com earn 100 terms and conditions apply. Bank of America and a member fdic.
[36:42]
Brandon Walker
This is Tony Ayo from the Real Report with Tony Ayo and Uncle Murder. You ever notice how everything keeps going up? Rent's going up, streaming services are going up. Even your favorite burrito spot suddenly thinks salsa should cost extra. But with Boost Mobile, you and your phone bill don't have to play the Willis Go up Soon game because Boost Mobile has an unlimited talk, text and data plan at a price that'll never go up. It's the same price you'll pay for life, meaning you're set to never worry about your bill increasing again for as long as you're on the plan. While the world keeps finding new ways to nickel and dime you. Boost Mobile gives you unlimited wireless at one set price for life. Imagine something in your budget actually staying the same. You'll pay the same for unlimited wireless when you're posting mirror selfies in your 20s. And when you're posting mirror selfies in retirement. Some things never change. Switch now for unlimited wireless at a price that'll never go up. Only at boost mobile. After 30 gigabytes, customers may experience slower speeds. Customers will pay $25 a month as long as they remain active on the Boost Unlimited plan.
[37:43]
Josh Pate
You've never been one to settle. Stand down or stand still. You're a lifelong learner, energized by excellence. There's a fire inside you you can't ignore. You've got competition to outrun, momentum to build on, and your own high standards to meet. Stop now. Not a chance At Capella University, we help you catch what you're chasing because you've always had the drive. Now go earn the degree. Capella University. What can't you do? Visit Capella Edu to learn more.
[38:16]
Jesse
What a day last night. That's not how I want you to intro it. Prez, when you cut this in a little while. We've got a lot of friends of this program. We've got some people we don't care for. We've got some people who have been outright hostile towards us in the past. But that doesn't mean that we have to completely ignore opportunity. And Brandon Walker, Burger King. Brandon, as he's kind of become known, is someone who we've been familiar with for a long time. Brandon Walker and I have corresponded behind the scenes in what I would call a hostilely cordial manner. In the past, he said some things about me publicly. I've said some things about him publicly. Most of what I've said has been true. Most of what he said I think is more a defense mechanism than anything else. It's kind of like the kid saying, I'm running away from home, I'm never coming back. He doesn't mean it. It's just, what else is he gonna say? He's seven. What else is Brandon Walker gonna say in a lot of these situations? But here's the thing. He used to have a show. It went away. Some conflicting opinions as to why, but it went away and now it's back. And so I got an offer. I got an invite to Barstool headquarters in Chicago a couple of weeks ago. People thought I was going up there for Big Ten media days. It was great. No one asked why I was in Chicago, but I didn't go up there for that. I went up there to go record a lengthy 90 minute sit down with Brandon Walker for his debut show, which happened Monday night. And it's like 2 hours, 45 minutes total. Probably not a great idea because his voice was shot in the first 20 minutes. I don't know if you saw that or not. A lot of you did. Big viewership on this show. But it was the debut and I wanted to go up there and I wanted to participate. And I've got some more news about how that's not quite finished yet. But I also got to tell you, there's some other people I know up there that work in that Chicago office. And one of the highlights of my trip was not Brandon Walker. I would not call Brandon Walker the highlight of the trip. Our good, close personal friend Ben Mintz, I think, was probably the highlight of my trip. And Mince, he suffered an injury a few weeks ago. He's been hobbled. He's been on the shelf. But you know what? Nothing is impossible. And so one of the first pieces of audio and video that I want to play for you is sort of Brandon Walker recapping the scenes when I first walked in the building. And I gotta say, for a dude who stretches the truth a lot, this is a very accurately told story. Let's roll it.
[40:41]
Brandon Walker
Ben Mintz and Big T. Ben Mince broke his leg. Ben Mintz broke his leg three weeks ago and has not moved an inch since. We can't get him to work.
[40:53]
Jesse
We can't get him.
[40:54]
Brandon Walker
He has to be led to the bathroom to pee. People have to hold it for him.
[40:57]
Jesse
They got to wipe him.
[40:58]
Brandon Walker
They got to do everything. We have to send Crane in to.
[41:01]
Jesse
To bathe him every night, and he is useless.
[41:03]
Brandon Walker
You show up, Ben Mince jumps out of his chair and skips. He skips to you like, oh, my God, Josh Pate.
[41:09]
Jesse
Yeah, the. You don't have to hold that. The boom arm will hold it up. So I walked in and Mince. Mince drug a peg leg all the way down the hallway, yelling, let's talk about Peptides. I want to talk to you about Peptides. We'll talk later. Well, you gonna be in Nashville for Ole Miss Louisville. We'll talk later.
[41:27]
Brandon Walker
Ben Menz is sitting there. All of a sudden, he goes, pen,
[41:35]
Jesse
I don't know that you can appreciate the moment if you don't know Ben Mentz. You can't really appreciate the moment. It's the most surreal thing, because I knew about men's injury. It's been well documented, and I have seen the videos. And I, like, I thought for a little while the dude would never walk again. And I walked in that building, and you're, like, taking your sunglasses off because it's bright outside. You're adjusting your eyes, and boom. This was captured. This is like still photography images of when I first walked in. So there's Mincey, that unmistakable posture. And he's in a. He's in a boot there. He's in a walking boot, like an Alabama running back after the LSU game. And then we start walking down the hallway. It's Brandon Walker. Like, we're on kind of a time crunch. And so he's trying to peel me away. And in that picture on the right, Mincey tried to chase us down the hallway a little ways. So that's. That's an accurate portrayal of what happened there. Amazing trip though. Amazing encounter there. Get well soon, Mensi. We're all pulling for you. So anyway, this was a wide ranging conversation. You can find it over on the Brandon Walker College Football Show YouTube channel. What a. What a combo of words coming out of my mouth here on the show. But here's the thing, okay? And it's going to happen a lot, I would imagine, because he's doing a solo show. As we all know, I am very measured and calculated and responsible with the words and predictions that come out of my mouth because I hold myself to account. If I pick Indiana to go 06 and they go six and oh, I'm throwing the clown nose on, okay? So we do a healthy inventory and I try to keep myself honest. Brandon Walker lives in a fantasy world. He has a hot air balloon with absolutely no sandbags. And so sometimes when you finally get face to face with that kind of person, you can get them on tilt really quickly and you can see that they're about to go a direction because it's in the eyes. You can see it in the eyes. You can read the body language. And what you do at that point is you just nudge them. So Mississippi State comes up last night. I'll just give you a quick example. This happened like a hundred times over the course of 90 minutes, but one of them was Mississippi State's his team. Mississippi State's over under win total is 4 1/2 at FanDuel right now. With that information on the top of mind, let's hear how Brandon Walker thinks the Bulldogs are going to do this year.
[43:50]
Brandon Walker
We might have some things percolating down there.
[43:52]
Jesse
You're going to go to a bowl. The Mario Taylor. Yeah, I know who he is. I've read the preview magazines. You're going to go to a bowl.
[43:58]
Brandon Walker
Well, I went to a bowl last
[43:59]
Jesse
year, but so I mean, what is the standard this year? Like, we're cooking some things. Everyone speaks in these hypotheticals. Eight wins. Are you high? Eight wins.
[44:09]
Brandon Walker
Eight.
[44:10]
Jesse
And you know what?
[44:11]
Brandon Walker
We got Oklahoma and Alabama coming in back to back. We're getting one of them.
[44:16]
Jesse
You got that right. 8 and 4 minimum. At least 8 and 4. And either ou or bama fall victim to Mississippi State. And it's not like I'm down on Mississippi State. The way to handle this is the over unders. Four and a half.
[44:30]
Brandon Walker
Let's.
[44:30]
Jesse
Let's call six and six. But no, we got to go eight and four. So it's important to get that sort of Thing on the record early because that's on the Internet now. You can't get rid of that. That'll live forever. It's no different than that kid from Texas catching that dagger touchdown pass right in his face. And the live broadcast catching him right there in the corner of the end zone. The lights are on. No one's home dead behind the eyes, which came up, by the way, and I got him to discuss it on record at length. So here's the heartbreaking part that sometimes happens in life. The heartbreaking part that you can only imagine if you get into the media business is some people you like, some people you're indifferent on, and some people you despise. And you would think, oh, the folks you like, those are the ones you have chemistry with. And, oh, man, the folks who you can't stand. Oh, you'd never. It'd be oil and water. No, no, no. The heartbreaking part is when you love folks but you have no on air chemistry with them. And then you turn around and you sit down with that and it just clicks. You know how it is, Jesse, the heartbreaking takeaway from all this is it was great. The feedback we got was incredible to the point where I'm happy to announce right here on this show tonight that that was only the first half of a home. And home, there's no buyout here. You can't go Indiana, Notre Dame, you can't get out of this one. And so I'm not going to give you exact dates, but it'll be in August, it'll be later this month. Think about these words. Jesse, take camera one. Bradley, think about these words on this stage, in this physical space. Brannon Walker in studio for part two of whatever you want to call what happened last night. Subscribe to the channel, please. Both of them. We move on. They're watching us in State College, Pennsylvania. Franklin, Tennessee. Daytona Beach, Florida. We do have great news to report. It's a little delayed, frankly. We should have talked about it the other night and I just forgot. So we had a question about a rivalry. A rivalry I grew up on. A rivalry that should be eternal. Evergreen should never die. USC and Notre Dame is back after a brief absence. It won't be played this year or next year or the year after that. But the good news is it's coming back in 2030. So one of you asked, how am I supposed to feel about this? You know, am I supposed to celebrate that it's back, or am I supposed to be mad that I gotta wait till 2030? Well, 1000% celebrate that it's back. I mean, this. This was a historic rivalry that it looked like we were gonna lose, and now we do get it back. It's in 2030. You can be mad that it's come to this. I was. I know I was. I view rivalries in the kind of light that I don't even view the playoff in. I don't even view the concept of the national championship game in the same light. It's like the Pope meme, man. I'm holding Notre Dame, USC here, above and beyond the college Football playoff logo. Cause I grew up like that. I was raised like that. I was raised properly. And so rivalries mean everything to me. It's the very bedrock and foundation of college football. Rivalries should be more secure than Fort Knox. And yet we let people touch them and we let people mess around with them. And it is my opinion, if I were college football commissioner and everything I just said goes, I wouldn't care who the AD at Notre Dame is or USC is or the head coach at Notre Dame or USC at any given point in time. You sign up to be part of Notre Dame, you're signing up to play USC every year. You sign up to be part of usc, you're signing up to play Notre Dame every year. Case closed. And if you don't like that, the answer is not, oh, let's rework the schedule. The answer is head on down the road and go somewhere else. Go coach somewhere where you do have full autonomy over the schedule. But it just so happens that this is ordained, okay? You don't get to touch this. It's like the sky is blue, water is wet. Notre Dame and USC play every year, and if you don't like it, that's a you problem. And if it. If it messes up your path to the playoff, your head's in the wrong place. So I'm not casting aspersions here. You remind me to tell you who I had to ignore a call from Jesse. It's unbelievable. So rivalries are everything to me. So, yes, I was irate when this happened, and, yes, I'm very happy that it's back right now. Here's what we have to resist, okay? And this is a cautionary tale. It's not the last time we're going to have to deal with this. I want to make sure everyone understands playoff brain rot is a very, very big danger to college football. Playoff brain rot sounds like this. We got to make the playoff no matter what. And that means that if we got to Soften our schedule to do it, so be it. And if this rivalry has been played for 500 years, but moving it would help us go to the playoff, then so be it. No, no, no. And then there's this group of fans that I think have fallen victim to playoff brain rot. And that group of fans, no particular group here, but a generic group of fans, feral in nature. They wander the college football landscape and they say, well, why? Why should they play that game if it makes their path to the playoff tougher? Because it's college football. That's why. That's it. I don't have bullet point 2, 3, 4 and 5. Because it's college football. And it happens. This is the whole nature of the sport. It happens. Now, I do get the logic. I do get it. Just like Sark last year, Sark came to the end of the year, Texas is 9 and 3. They don't get in the playoff. And he looked and he said, now wait just a second. We could have easily scheduled Abilene Christian in week one instead of Ohio State. And it's a fact in his opinion, it's a fact in his opinion that had we just won 50 to nothing and then done everything else the rest of the way just like we did, we'd be in the playoffs. That is true and irrelevant because that's not how a competitor should think. But there is merit to the logic of it. So my gripe is not merely with people who want to do away with historic pillars of this sport in advancing their playoff likelihood. I also look at the entire rankings process. There's a big difference now. There's a big difference in when we get to the end of the year. And do we think that the resume justifies making the playoff? I'm starting way, way, way, way back in. Like the table of contents in this book, not on chapter nine. The table of contents is how does the playoff committee operate? How should they operate? And to me, what I would tweak is the way resumes are judged. Because I think there should be a world where there's a nine and three team. And I don't mean last year's Texas, but I mean any given year. If someone loaded their schedule up and they go nine and three against it and there's another P4 that went 11 and one, I want to live in a world where there's room to put 9 and 3 over 11 and 1. Because if you thought that just loading up on cream puffs was going to be this double barrel middle finger to the system, which is Basically what Indiana is doing with their out of conference schedule. Mind you, it's an embarrassing situation that Indiana's in right now. But you know what? There's like a part of me that can't even blame Indiana because number one, Indiana can do no wrong right now. But number two, Indiana's looking and saying, hey man, we already play in the Big Ten. If we take care of business in conference, it doesn't matter if we play three high school teams out of conference, you won't box us out of that playoff. Watch and see. And you know what? You won't. Playoff committee won't. It may happen as soon as this year. What if Indiana's 10 and 2 this year didn't play anything with a pulse out of conference and they're being compared to a comparable 10 and 2, maybe even a 9 and 3 from somewhere? You're not going to keep them out. You won't. Playoff committee won't. They know they won't. They've spoken publicly about it. So, you know, until that dynamic changes a little bit, you're going to deal with playoff brain rot as the basis and the foundation of the logic for some of these decisions. Anyway, I am glad we got USC and Notre Dame back. I hope this is the last time we have to deal with that. But it won't be okay. Transfer portal was a buzz this past year and we didn't have a post spring portal window. So I kind of like that world that we live in. But also now that fall camp's opening up, like it gets real. So we find out. When you look at the industry composite, you look at the On3 portal rankings and you think, you know. But then after every single year we look back at that top 15, top 20, and inevitably there were guys that you expected to be impact players that weren't. And this is like the great period of unknown where we're trying to figure out like, LSU goes and gets Sam Levitt. Is Sam Levitt going to be a true difference maker? At quarterback, is Sam Levitt a guy that if LSU draws like Texas in the SEC championship game, which would be a second time they played him this year, or if they're playing Ohio State in like a quarterfinal and it's 24, 24 and quarterback's got to go win a game, can he do it? Jordan Seaton, how does he pan out? Because that's a big deal for LSU because they were the worst team running the ball in the league last year and there were some woeful historic powers in terms of rushing numbers in the sec, but LSU was the worst. But LSU tried to make moves to correct that. So that's a top offensive tackle. I think he was the best offensive tackle in the thing and Peak was the only other one that could have maybe challenged for that and he got hurt. So they were last in the SEC in rushing last year. They are making moves definitively to try and upgrade that they got. You mind me, Ellen? Yeah, I got to say it slow. They got Jordan Ross. I mean, those are two really, really big time edge players. So if LSU falters this year, it won't be for a lack of immediately trying at Miami. This is kind of a story every year. Miami is very active in the portal. Damon Wilson kind of coming in. I think it may be the wrong way to look at it to just say, well, Miami, everything about them depends on how much they can replenish the lost production of Ruben Bane and Akeem mezador. They lost 22 sacks. Well, Damon Wilson only had nine last year. First off, no one only has nine sacks. That's the first thing. The second thing is it's not like the rest of the team's a carbon copy. What if Miami, oh, I don't know, Maybe is only 82% as effective in their pass rush as they were last year, but they're better in the secondary, especially at corner, better ball skills. And oh, by the way, they got Darian Mensah down there now and he's an upgraded quarterback. That's a what if? I believe it, so it's kind of a prediction for me. But technically it's a what if. What if they don't have to be exactly what they were. What if there are more than one or two ways to skin the old cat, as Meemaw would say, and Mario Cristobal would also say. Cooper Barkate coming in, just casually pairing an 1100 yard receiver last year with Malachi. Tony first world, man. That's the world Miami lives in. And Texas, of course. This is the most all in of all in teams. And in the portal going to get Cam Coleman. Cam Coleman, there's a world this year where he matches his career production. Jesse, did we say around 1300 career for Cam Coleman right now? Somewhere around there he could have 1300 this year. So, I mean, Ryan Wingo's on that team. They're loaded. They went and got smothers. They went and got really brown. Two tailbacks. Most teams out there would have died to have one of them. But also Rasheed Biles, one of my favorite players out of the transfer portal. Huge addition at linebacker. He's not going to catch the ball, he's not running the ball, he's not throwing the ball. So he's not going to get as much attention. But man, the mentality they need to play with. Or in other words, when you think back to Texas, Georgia games and you think about Georgia just having a little more of that. Rasheem Biles is one of the kinds of guys that you bring in in order to, you know, maybe change that dynamic a little bit. Indiana had the number one portal class in the country per on three, and it was a small class, but, but it was a really, really high impact class. Josh Hoover, of course, at quarterback, Josh Hoover, you know, if you think about Curtis Rourke two years ago and then them upgrading to Fernando Mendoza, I'm not going to say those are the two bookends of the scale because it's possible that Josh Hoover is better than Fernando Mendoza. Who knows? That'd be tough. But I'm asking if he's between those two, where is he on that scale? Little born Rourke or a little closer to Fernando Mendoza? Because really that's kind of what it comes down to here. Then we got Nick Marsh, the Erik Singleton of the Big Ten, as I like to call him. And by that I mean Nick Marsh is a potential superstar caliber player that was just in the wrong situation last year. And there are few truths in an uncertain world. But I promise you he's in the right situation at Indiana and there are a lot of, a lot of passes to be caught there. I was going to say a lot of balls to go around, but that would have been an early August immunity and we don't want to do that. We don't want to take ourselves down that road this early. So I get the vibe and got the vibe when I was talking to Sig when I went up there. Perez, you remember, you were, you were setting up the cameras and I was asking them about Hoover and Signetti just said, we got what we need there. Yeah, I think we got what we need there. Well, that's the only scouting report I need. So the other guys, I mean, Drew Mestemaker, this hall in general that they brought in at Oklahoma State, just taking Drew Mestemaker, who was a 4800 yard, 40 plus touchdown guy last year, could end up being the best quarterback in the country this year. And hardly anyone has him on his radar unless you're a diehard college football fan. Caleb Hawkins also transferred up there from North Texas. That's a 1400 yard rusher last year. That team in general is going to be fun to watch because there are going to be some people out there who halfway know what they're talking about in the sport that pick Oklahoma State to play for a conference title and that would not be the biggest shock in the world. Justice Haynes, he's gone from Bama to Michigan and now to Georgia Tech. And if you think about what Georgia Tech doesn't have, you think about Haynes King being out the door and then the offensive coordinator is gone and probably the guy that would have been the starting quarterback is gone. And you think about some of the portal moves they made elsewhere trying to gain size. Overall, there's a lot of uncertainty. Justice Haynes is certain he's a good player. He may lead the ACC guys, he may lead power four in total carries because I can promise you he got paid to come down there and they're going to get their money's worth out of Justice Haynes. Eric Singleton, I just mentioned him. This is a guy who at Georgia Tech two years ago was a really good player. Went to Auburn last year and did what everyone did at Auburn last year, which was disappear. And now he pops back on the scene at Florida, playing with Dallas Wilson, playing with Vernell Brown, playing with Aaron Filo, who I think will win the quarterback job there. Eric Singleton's a really good player and he is not alone down there. He can be a really, really good breakout player this year. And then Rocco Becht who has Jesse, you know, he's, he's like. I'm trying to think of who I want to compare him to. It's like the, he's like the new cam rising guy who's just been around forever and he's your quarterback now. You own him, he's your quarterback. So whatever he does, you do. You guys are one of the same this year, fourth year starter at quarterback, veteran running backs, veteran tight end, kind of a veteran team guys got an old team up there, Jesse, that work work for Indiana. So those are some of the impact portal players that I've got an eye on. Not an exhaustive list obviously.
[61:22]
Brandon Walker
Before we had ATT business wireless coverage, our delivery GPS wasn't the most reliable. Once our driver had to do a 14 point turn to get back on route. A 14 point turn, an influencer, even livestream the whole thing. Not good for business. Now with AT&T business wireless routes are updating on the fly and deliveries are on time. And the influencer did get us 53 new followers though.
[61:47]
Jesse
AT&T business wireless connecting changes everything
[61:52]
Brandon Walker
Amazon
[61:53]
Jesse
Health AI presents painful thoughts why did I search the Internet for answers to my cold sore problem?
[62:01]
Josh Pate
Now I'm stuck down a rabbit hole
[62:03]
Jesse
filled with images of alarmingly graphic source in various stages of ooze. I can clear my search history, but I can never unsee that. Don't go down the rabbit hole. Amazon Health AI gets you the right care fast. Healthcare just got less painful.
[62:22]
Josh Pate
Wait, I came in for two things.
[62:25]
Jesse
How is this $47?
[62:27]
Josh Pate
All right, we're going to need a plan here. Just start simple with bank of America Advantage Safe Balance Banking. No overdraft item fees, no monthly maintenance fee. If you're under 25 plus as a new checking customer, you can earn $100 when you open an account and make qualifying Zeller debit transactions.
[62:42]
Jesse
Oh, that's actually really simple.
[62:44]
Josh Pate
Safe balance banking. One less thing to figure out. Learn more@bofa.com earn 100 terms and conditions apply. Bank of America and a member FDIC
[62:52]
Brandon Walker
this is Tony Ayo from the Real Report with Tony Ayo and Uncle Murder. You ever notice how everything keeps going up? Rents going up? Streaming services are going? Even your favorite burrito spot suddenly thinks salsa should cost extra. But with Boost Mobile, you and your phone bill don't have to play the Will this go up soon? Game Because Boost Mobile has an unlimited talk, text and data plan at a price that'll never go up. It's the same price you'll pay for life, meaning you're set to never worry about your bill increasing again for as long as you're on the plan. While the world keeps finding new ways to nickel and dime you. Boost Mobile gives you unlimited wireless at one set price for life. Imagine something in your budget actually staying the same. You'll pay the same for unlimited wireless when you're posting mirror selfies in your 20s. And when you're posting mirror selfies in retirement, some things never change. Switch now for unlimited wireless at a price that'll never go up, only at boost mobile. After 30 gigabytes, customers may experience slower speeds. Customers will pay $25 a month as long as they remain active on the Boost Unlimited Plan.
[63:56]
Jesse
It's a beautiful time of year. Camps are open, fall camps opening all over the country. And I got to tell you, this quarterback situation in college football from a preseason standpoint is unlike anything I remember in my lifetime. I was just looking like I opened my notes app this morning and I just started writing names of quarterbacks and this is not C.J. bailey's. Not even on this list as, as I got pointed out to me, DJ Lagway is. But I just wrote some names and I don't know, that's like 20 or 30 names there of guys who are notable. And I told Jesse earlier today, take the top 10, go, go to the Heisman odds at FanDuel. Take whoever they have ranked top 10, take them off the board and think about the names who are still there. If you take the top 10 quarterbacks in terms of preseason Heismanods off of that list, you've still got John Mateer, Marcel Reed, Lenora Sellers, Damond Williams, Will Hammond, either Austin Mack or Keelan Russell, Bear Bachmeier, Rocco Beck, Drew Master Maker, Kevin Jennings, Austin Simmons was slated to start for Lane last year. This is an insane quarterback year, which means the potential for week by week upsets greatly increases because any of those quarterbacks hot on any given Saturday could theoretically beat almost anyone else. It's going to be incredible. And if you think about the best of them filtering out over the course of a season, think about what the playoff bracket would look like, not even predicting the teams, just kind of think about the quarterbacks in the bracket. So that obviously is something to watch in fall camp. There are some quarterback battles that I really have my eye on. I think the Alabama quarterback battle is the most important one in the country. So Keelan Russell, Austin Mack, now I do owe you this. We're just going to delete this if it doesn't come to be. But I think I went through spring and I thought Keelan Russell would be the starting quarterback there. In my field, nothing's changed since spring, but my feel is Keelan Russell still ends up being their starter, like by November or something like that. And he may start week one, who knows? I do think there's some legitimacy to the theory that's floated around that if you have a little more trust in Austin Mack, you start Austin Mack understanding that from a psychological standpoint, from an ace in your back pocket standpoint, you don't have the toughest open to the season. They play East Carolina, they go to Kentucky, they got Florida State at home, and then they get into conference play against South Carolina. Point is, look, we saw last year with Bama, there is no gimme, but they should start five and oh. Should start five and oh. But if anything goes sideways at any point, I think you want to be able to say, all right, it's time to start Keelan Russell. Like that's, that feels like the start of a new season. If you do that, I'm not saying that's the way it'll go. But I think this quarterback battle is plenty competitive enough where that's the way it could go. Camp, I think opens there tomorrow at Tennessee. George McIntyre and Faison Brandon. My default stance in spring was it's George McIntyre's job to lose. And I still think that's the case. I just think it's razor tight because I think Faison Brandon is going to do a lot in fall camp and he's only going to get better, but he's going to do a lot in fall camp to, I think, challenge. There's, I think the fallback for Hypo either way is, hey, we got a pretty good offensive line here. We got a pretty good ground game here. The jury's still out on how good they'll be defensively Year one under Jim Knowles. But if you think about the style of team, you're not probably asking either one of these guys throw the ball 50 times a game. You're looking for the best decision maker. You're looking for the guy with the best poise. And if that's a true freshman by the time week one rolls around, so be it. And you're not married to that decision that you make in week one. But the one that has a lot of people scratching their head right now, and I'm with you is Clemson. Top 25 Clemson, the 23rd ranked team in the country according to the coaches, is in a situation where Chris Vezina's been there how many years, Jesse? Three. And he has not taken the job yet. And Tate Reynolds is there. And look, I'll be honest, when we went through spring, I listened to the feedback from Clemson and I, I kind of took this as a cosmetic quarterback battle. That's how I looked at it. We have them every year, but I don't think it is that. As we get closer to fall camp opening there, that just feels like a battle where I'd still pick Vezina to win the job. I just. He hasn't taken it yet. And remember, Garrett Riley is not the offensive coordinator there anymore. So you got both guys learning a new system. And there's some people around that program that would tell you, hey, Tate Reynolds maybe fits the Chad Morris offense a little better than Chris Fazina does. It just feels kind of weird. I don't know. I thought that'd be locked up already. And here's the other thing to keep in mind. They open against lsu at lsu and that offensive line, to be generous, it's probably in a state of flux coming into the year. It's not the place that I would want to go to figure things out. And so whoever gets the start there, you got to keep in mind it could be rocky in week one. So quarterback battles, that's something to watch. The hot seat thing, which I kind of talked about the other night, but since fall camps are opening, it's a good time to just remind everyone Pete Nakos did a really good job sort of summarizing all this over on on3.com earlier today. Yesterday or today. I saw it this morning. So yes, yes, of course. Mike Norvell's on the hot seat at fsu. Dave Aranda at Baylor. Yeah, the whole Belichick thing at North Carolina. Not a lot of sand left in the old hourglass there, I don't think. Mike Locksley at Maryland. Yes. Man, they threw Chris Creighton on here. Tough times at Eastern Michigan, but that's not who I wanted to talk to you about. I wanted to talk to you about Luke Fickle at Wisconsin. So Luke Fickle has had the worst quarterback injury luck of any major head coach over the last few years. Luke Fickle did not do himself any favors with how he filled out his offensive staff when he first got there a few years ago. That's ancient history. Can't do anything about that now. He's tried to rectify it since then. Here's what I'm trying to tell you. Unlike some of these other guys, if Luke Fickle gets fired this year, and I were North Carolina or someone like that, I'd go after Luke Fickle in a second. Because Luke Fickle is not a bad football coach. He got down the wrong road too far. You know, sometimes I look at these situations where maybe you turn down a dead end road and you just don't have enough gas to get back to the main road. But if I could just get this car back to the main road and fill it up a little bit, it'd be fine. It'll run fine. Luke Fickle, all I'm trying to wait and see is did he get down that dead end road too far? And if so, and if he gets fired, Luke Fickle would be in high demand. Like Pate State has an opening. I would very aggressively go after Luke Fickle, but I don't know that's how it ends up this year. You got their schedule, Jesse, by chance, the Wisconsin schedule? I didn't ask for it, but hopefully it's just in the system. I think they may be okay this year. They open it against Notre Dame in Lambeau. So I would guess they lose that game and then they're off everyone's radar for a couple of weeks. They play Western Illinois and Eastern Michigan and then the next time you see them would be at Penn State, week four. Now, I'm going to tell you right now, Jesse's people have penciled that in as a W. And the only W you should be penciling in is the Wisconsin logo because there's nothing given about that day. You need to be careful. You need to be careful. All I'm saying is they do not play Ohio State. They do not play Michigan. I'm having to scan it in real time. They do not play Indiana, they do not play Oregon. Check me on that. But I think that's accurate. It's a far cry from this time last year when we did the strength of schedule rankings, which Rhett Lashley is a huge fan of, preseason strength of schedule rankings. And Wisconsin was like a runaway number one without a close number two in the Big Ten. Things have changed, I think. I think Luke Fickle is going to be okay. A lot of people disagree with me on that also. The first year head coaches getting ready to open these fall camps. Lane Kiffin, of course, at lsu. Kyle Whittingham is the head coach at Michigan now, which I know is old news, but it's kind of something you have to remind yourself of every now and then because of everything that's happened up there. Matt Campbell, of course, at Penn State. James Franklin at Virginia Tech. Here's what I want to ask you. Jesse and everyone else, because Jesse can't speak for himself. Do any of those guys make the playoff this year? Take Lane out of it. Let's just pretend Lane's a different category. Are we going to have first year head coaches or head coach, singular or plural here in the playoff? I think we're going to. I just don't know who. And we're taking Lane out of it again, because that's a different category. Like Morgan Scally at Utah, he technically is a first year head coach, even though he's been there for a long time. I mean, what if Summerall just. It all came together for him? What if he made the playoffs? What if Billy Napier at JMU making the playoffs while Florida doesn't would be a poison pill for a lot of people in Gainesville. So, yeah, fall camp's opening. It's a beautiful time of year. I'm extremely excited. And then I pull this up, this story. In case you can't tell, I've moved on. This NCAA suspension of Aaron Carter, I wanted to wait a couple of days on because this is a pretty family friendly show and I don't want to blow up in front of the kiddos. And so Sammy hit us. And I'm going to answer this question tonight. He said, how much of a joke is the NCAA for suspending Arian Carter for a plane ticket? Don't they have better things to be working on? Great question. No, they don't. There's no other rule that they have on the books that they can actively enforce. So this is kind of what it's come down to. They have to lick the old index finger and flip past the first 19 chapters of the NCAA bylaws, and they get down to something they think maybe they won't get taken to court over. And this kid let an agent pay $400 for a plane ticket. Put him in prison. Get him out of here. Put him in prison. So what happened here? For those of you who haven't been following this story and think that this is a joke? It is, but it isn't. Arian Carter, really good player for Tennessee. He tested the NFL waters, and what happened was he had an agent, because everyone does now. And that agent purchased him a $427 plane ticket. We don't know if it was round trip or not. And then he decided not to go to the NFL, and he paid back the $427 to the agent. Case closed. Except that it's not because the NCAA got wind of this. And they were like, finally something for us to do. And they came down hard on Arian Carter and they suspended him. Three games, actually. And Tennessee appealed the ruling, and I think the appeal was something like, you can't be serious. And the NCAA said, okay, fine, two game suspension. And apparently that's where we are right now. And here's what's wild. What's wild. And again, I'm about to speak in pure hypotheticals, because there's no way that the purely hypothetical scenario that I'm about to paint would ever actually happen. But if Arian Carter's agent would have just gone and charged Tennessee a $40,000 consultation fee and then handed a lot of that money to Arian Carter, we'd be fine. Again, not that that ever happens in the real world. Strictly hypothetical, but. No, no, no. Instead, he bought the kid a 400. Let's round up to 500. Why not? Bought a $500 plane ticket. Prison. Prison or suspension, whatever comes first. So Josh Hyple spoke on this today. And I said, this is a family friendly show. But there is going to be some language mixed into this sound bite and I did not have Bradley and crew edit it for content because it's just too accurate. So they asked Josh Hyple at his first press conference of fall camp today. What's the latest here? How do we feel about the Arian Carter suspension? And here's just a bunch of facts from Josh Hyper. The ruling that came out from the ncaa, the two game suspension I truly believe is bullshit. You look at the landscape of college
[77:14]
Brandon Walker
football,
[77:16]
Jesse
the rules from Nil, everything, I think the ruling is completely outdated. Oh, but it's a rule, Josh. Don't you know it's a rule? Even if you don't like the rule, we got to enforce the rules. Hey, did you know that it's illegal to coast down a hill in the state of Tennessee? Did you know that it's illegal to shine shoes after 1pm on Sunday in New York State? Be careful. Did you know that, Jesse? I didn't either. You know why? Because there are some laws that we collectively as a society have understood are laughable and we don't enforce them. The NCAA is not familiar with this concept whatsoever. And so they're still enforcing 1997 logic based ruling in 2026. Do you understand there are teams paying over $40 million to their roster this year? Legally you can't do anything about it. And Aron Carter said, maybe I want to go be a professional athlete. $427 plane ticket. Oh, actually you weren't supposed to give me that. Let me pay it back suspension. Here's why I can't be a head coach. And this is really the only reason I'm not a college football head coach. I'd play him anyway. That's why I can't be a head coach. Because if I'm Josh Hyple, I don't really care what my legal team tells me. I don't care what my ad tells me. Truthfully, Danny White would probably be on board with me doing this. I'm like, arian, you're in week one. Just see what happens. Because clearly when you step to the podium and you talk that way about the governing body of the sport, you don't have any respect for them. No one has any respect for them. In fact, I know Tennessee is going to be playing at home week one. Tennessee could play on the road. Tennessee could probably play in Tuscaloosa. I think it was. Oh, man. Who was was Andy Staples, I believe. But I can't remember which show, but they floated a scenario the other day. They were saying if you were to take this to trial in a Gainesville courthouse or a Tuscaloosa courthouse, Tennessee would probably even win there because that's how egregious this is. So it couldn't be me. You want to know why Josh Hypo gets paid a lot of money? It's not even because he can dial up game plans so well. It's because he has to just like, grit his teeth and deal with this nonsense. And yet Tennessee is still going to be probably pretty good this year. But if you don't believe that, you can go over to FanDuel right now and prove me wrong. FanDuel, the exclusive odds provider of our show, several games are up over there. Now, like some of you love to go old school. You just love to bet the games. Others of you say, no, I think I want to go bet no on Texas Tech making the playoffs or yes on Oklahoma State making the playoffs. Look, I don't care because wins are wins. So value is value. You go find it wherever you can. But over at FanDuel right now, there's a robust college football market and beyond. I'm just, I'm a college football guy, so that's what I'm looking at. And not that fanduel has anything to do with this, per se. Actually, they do. Ramen Noodle Express is about to chug its way around the bend. Ramen Noodle Express is on its way back. We have fed so many families with the Ramen Noodle Express and I know some of you are new around here and you have no idea what I'm talking about. You will. You will in time. And there is a new Ramen Noodle Express T shirt that is coming to the patestatematerial.com store. That is my favorite design of any design we've ever generated around here. And it's so simple, so good. I may wear it on air. And I've never worn a design T shirt in my life on air. Sign up for FanDuel@FanDuel.com CFB promotion must be 21+ and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in Washington D.C. first online real money wager only $10. First deposit required. Bonus issued as non withdrawable bonus bet that expires seven days after receipt. Do you have a gambling problem? If so, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanduel.com rg call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE NY or text hop Eny in New York. All right, lastly, bowl prediction season rolls on around here. I made my predictions earlier. It's time for you to make your predictions and if any of these rank 9.5 or Boulder on the boldness scale and it hits, you win a chalice of supremacy. We gave away three of them last year, which means they were chalai instead of chalices. Let's see what we have tonight. From Nashville, Tennessee. Three words. Lsu. Actually it's four words because we don't say natty because I think it's disrespectful. LSU wins the national championship. This is from tweeting at Elon until he gives me 1 million legal name. So this is a 9.5, but it's not insane to think LSU could win the national title. Yes, there is a lot that has to come together for them, but you know my philosophy on this. If you're predicting a single team to win the national title from this far out, it's like trying to sink a half court shot. The rim is the same size as if you were shooting a layup. The ball's the same size, but just the percentage has dropped significantly. Big basketball guy. So if they get in the playoff, then obviously it's a game changer. Well, for two reasons. Number one, because you're in the playoff, which you have to be to win the national title. But number two, if they're there, that means it all worked. So like, if you tell me LSU is going to get in the playoff, that's kind of like Miami making it last year. Once Miami made it in, anything's possible. But they've got to make it. And I know by SEC standards this is a workable schedule, but it's still a hard schedule. So give me a nine and a half on them winning the whole thing because even if they make the playoff, they're going to have to play two or three of the best in the country. And that's just tough. Not impossible, but tough. Next up, Jared from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Penn State wins all of its games en route to Matt Campbell's first playoff appearance so close a couple of years ago. This is a 9.5. Remember, Penn State is not its schedule. Penn State is a team who plays its schedule and their over under win totals. Nine and a half right now. But we're calling for him to go 12 and oh, I believe in Matt Campbell implicitly. Some say I got him hired, not me, but some. But do they win everything? They should. So let's take a look at their schedule. Do they win all the games they should? You know the Marshals and Temples and Buffalo. This is a. This a man. I forgot. I haven't looked at their schedule in a while. This is Indiana esque. This is pretty rough but that's okay. Goes to the Big Ten. Man. No one gets to take shots at the Big Ten right now. It's so comforting having that patch on your chest. Anyway, eventually they will be less than a five touchdown favorite when Wisconsin comes to town. Northwestern. These are games they're supposed to win though. Minnesota and Rutgers later in the year at Maryland. So Purdue, if we are to assume they win all the games they're supposed to, that gets them to about nine and oh, and then we got USC at Michigan and at Washington. Those are the three games that are still in a state of balance here. And I just got a tough time seeing this. I also have a tough time assuming that the schedule is going to be as big a cakewalk outside of those three as other people are suggesting just cause that's not how the sport works. So that's a 9 and a half 12 and O. Penn State though would be very entertaining because that means they're going to the Big Ten title game and who knows what happens there. But they're in the playoff either way if they, if they make it that far. Next up, we have some controversy out of Lynchburg Virginia in the acc. SMU wins their first ACC championship before Miami. I don't like it. I love it. I'm not picking it but I love the. I love the spirit of this prediction. It's a 9.25, Jesse. You thought I should go higher, right? You didn't think I should go higher. You think this is accurate at 9.25. So you don't think it's. You think it's bold, but it's not insane. It's because you doubt Miami's ability to ever win a conference title. They haven't. Haven't won it yet. Cursed. Did you say that? I didn't say that. Cursed. Wow. Miami is the overwhelming odds on favorite to win this league right now. But you know what? That doesn't mean much. I think they're going to win the league but that doesn't mean much either. In a one off scenario. Kevin Jennings gets hot. He beat Miami last year. Mind you, these teams played last year. We were there, we were on the field there in Dallas and it was, it was like a rainy game early. Then it was complete blue skies, second half. We talked to George Bush that day. Senior. So it was an eventful day there in Dallas. Look, here's what I want to point out. This is a big time schedule alert, red flag, double warning situation. Look at SMU schedule right now. It's on your screen. And if you're listening on podcast, this can't happen. How do you let this happen? SMU plays at Notre Dame November 21st. They then play at Stanford November 28th, back to back road games to end the year. And if they're in the conference title game, that means it's a third straight road game because they have to play it in Charlotte. So think about being in Dallas. You fly to South Bend and back, you fly to Palo Alto, California and back and then you fly to Charlotte and back. This could have happened to Miami last year. The ACC schedule makers had Miami playing back to back road games to end the year last year. But Miami just said, okay, a little work around here, let's just not make the conference title game and still play for a national title. But this, this prediction says SMU wins the accident. So on top of probably playing Miami, they're going to have to play Miami and beat them. Having been on the road three times in three weeks, that's hard. I changed my mind, Jesse. It's a 9.5. I'm going to bump it up to a 9 point. Schedule dynamics, I'm going to bump it up to a 9.5. And lastly, this will raise some eyebrows. Taco cat from Westchester, Pennsylvania. Indiana will 100% not make the playoffs this year. There's not a lot of wiggle room in 100%. I think this is a 9.25 because here's really what it takes. Indiana has a dog water out of conference schedule. So if they lose two conference games, throw their schedule up. Bradley, whoever punches that thing in there, let's just walk through this for a second. Let's say Indiana goes 10 and 2 because they're not going to be bad. But let's say they go 10 and 2. Their losses, let's just say are Ohio State, USC or like Ohio State at Michigan. But my point is, let's say the teams they beat like USC and Washington, let's say those end up not being good teams. This year, so there's not really signature wins to hang their hat on. And they get docked for playing North Texas, some dude named Howard in Western Kentucky and out of conference play. And it's like Vandy last year Vandy was 10 and 2, but it was just a log jam of teams and they get left out now. It's really tough to envision this, I know, because you've got the I don't believe in defending national champ. You got last year's national champ being left out if they're on the bubble. But that is kind of the way this could go. I still think it's unlikely, so I'm going to make this a nine and a quarter. But if they do get left out, that's how I think that would happen. Great show tonight. In case you can't tell, we are back to three shows per week and that will last until January. So we're locked in. Do me a quick favor, check and see if you're subscribed to the channel. If you are, thank you. If you think you are and or if you're not, just look and subscribe. Because it's free, it doesn't cost anything, it doesn't sign you up for anything. It just helps us. And so we always get a big influx of new audience this time of year. So we just kind of want to keep the show the same as it's always been and we want to keep that indefinitely. So subscribing to the channel helps us out. Appreciate you guys so much. We'll be back here Thursday night. Until then, for director Bradley producer Jesse, I'm Josh Pate. Have a great rest of your evening and God bless. Sign up for FanDuel@FanDuel.com CFB promotion must be 21+ and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in Washington, D.C. first online real money wager only. $10. First deposit required. Bonus issued as non withdrawable bonus bet that expires seven days after receipt. Do you have a gambling problem? If so, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanduel.com RG call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE NY or text hop Eny in New York. This episode is brought to you by Bobcat they started the compact equipment industry through grit, determination and a whole lot of think we can't do that. Watch us. They set standards, broke records, empowered people to build bigger and higher, to dig deeper, to make the impossible possible, impossible. We've all been there with doubters telling us what we can't do. Who cares what they think? We don't need their permission or forgiveness. We just get things done. So go ahead and doubt me, judge me, challenge me. But when the time comes, watch me. Bobcat if you're alignment in charge of keeping the lights on, Granger understands that you go to great lengths sometimes heights, to ensure the power is always flowing. Which is why you can count on Grainger for professional grade products and next day delivery. So you have everything you need to get the job done. Call 1-800-GRAINGER clickgrainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. Across America, money is being abandoned. By taking a few seconds to check Lyft before your next ride, you can give money a better home inside your wallet. Save the money. Check Lyft.
[93:01]
Josh Pate
Some so called SUVs feel more like toys.
[93:05]
Jesse
You need a real vehicle that'll handle real life. A real SUV like the all new 2027 Kia Seltos with its best in class interior room. It'll make the others feel like toys.
[93:15]
Josh Pate
Check out the new 2027 Kia Seltos X line.
[93:17]
Jesse
It's real world ready Kia Movement that inspires limited inventory available comparison based on publicly available data regarding Cargo Room in 2026 entry All Wheel Drive CUVs as of May 2026 entry All Wheel drive CUV class as defined by Kia Segmentation
[93:31]
Josh Pate
this is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.

Josh Pate's College Football Show

Episode: CFP & Conference Title Picks + Brandon Walker Interview Reaction Date: August 5, 2026 Host: Josh Pate

Episode Overview

Main Themes & Sections

1. Opening Thoughts and Approach to Predictions

2. Conference Championship Picks

ACC

Big 12

SEC

Big Ten

3. CFP Predictions & Bracketology

4. Coaches Poll Reaction

5. Brandon Walker Interview Reaction

6. Rivalries & The Return of USC–Notre Dame

7. Transfer Portal & Impact Players

8. Quarterback Battles to Watch

9. Coaches Hot Seat & First-Year Head Coaches

10. NCAA Suspension Controversy: Arian Carter

11. Listener Mailbag & Bold Predictions (Chalice of Supremacy)

Notable Quotes & Moments

Quick Reference: Key Timestamps

Summary

Josh Pate's College Football Show

Episode: CFP & Conference Title Picks + Brandon Walker Interview Reaction Date: August 5, 2026 Host: Josh Pate

Episode Overview

Main Themes & Sections

1. Opening Thoughts and Approach to Predictions

2. Conference Championship Picks

ACC

Big 12

SEC

Big Ten

3. CFP Predictions & Bracketology

4. Coaches Poll Reaction

5. Brandon Walker Interview Reaction

6. Rivalries & The Return of USC–Notre Dame

7. Transfer Portal & Impact Players

8. Quarterback Battles to Watch

9. Coaches Hot Seat & First-Year Head Coaches

10. NCAA Suspension Controversy: Arian Carter

11. Listener Mailbag & Bold Predictions (Chalice of Supremacy)

Notable Quotes & Moments

Quick Reference: Key Timestamps

Summary

Episode: CFP & Conference Title Picks + Brandon Walker Interview Reaction
Date: August 5, 2026
Host: Josh Pate

Episode: CFP & Conference Title Picks + Brandon Walker Interview Reaction
Date: August 5, 2026
Host: Josh Pate